New attacking options give Laszlo room for manoeuvre

HAVING spent much of the season fine-tuning a system of play which gets the most out of limited resources, Csaba Laszlo, the manager of Heart of Midlothian, expects to have more testing decisions to make on personnel and tactics as the club's injury problems ease and the quest for European football intensifies.

The return to form and fitness of Mike Tullberg, Calum Elliot and Gary Glen as options up front, Andrew Driver's availability on the flanks and the emergence from suspensions of goalkeeper Janos Balogh and central defender Marius Zaliukas means Hearts are well placed to mount a credible challenge for third place in the SPL over the closing weeks of the campaign.

"Everybody is available and in two weeks I also think Laryea Kingston will be OK," Laszlo reported."I don't know if I have a stronger squad but I have more choice, yes.I think you must not change what has worked for the long term good. The most important thing is my team can play different systems so they know what they have to do and we have worked on this in training.

"We can play 4-4-2 in different ways and we can play 4-4-1-1 and we have the players for this now.The formation at the moment is one we practice and we have more possibilities to change things and the key against Rangers was that we changed the system and we had opportunities to score and could have won the game."

While relying on 4-5-1 with only Christian Nade in attack left Hearts to resemble a one-trick pony for most of the season, Elliot's positive showing as a substitute in the second-half of the 2-2 draw at Ibrox has made it possible for Laszlo to implement Plan B and switch to 4-4-2.

Elliott suffered abuse from his own supporters when his form shaded last season. This term he spent the first half of the season on loan to Livingston where he re-discovered his touch in front of goal. On returning to Tynecastle, the young forward had to show patience, standing in line even behind Adrian Mrowiec, when the cupboard appeared bare in attack. When he eventually got his chance at Ibrox, Elliot was involved in both his side's goals and might have won the game but for an excellent save from Allan McGregor.

"Elliot is a player who has spent a lot of time on loan and who has had problems with everything here," said Laszlo. "He has scored goals for Livingston and showed against Rangers he is back. I think his confidence would really get a boost if he scored two or three goals but he is definitely getting there.

"I have tried to build his confidence up but I told him he had to help me, I couldn't do it alone. So for me there were very good signals against Rangers that he is a player who is getting better step by step."

Laszlo believes the future of the club lies with its young Scottish players but is hesitant about asking too much of them here and now. Although Jamie MacDonald, who signed a new three-year contract with the club, was touted as capable of following Craig Gordon into the Scotland team, the 22-year-old goalkeeper, who has a hand injury, is likely to make way for Balogh against Kilmarnock at Tynecastle tomorrow.

"At the moment maybe Jamie doesn't have the class of Craig Gordon. But if he keeps working 100 per cent then one day he can reach the national team as well. We have the pre-contract in place with Ian Black and are trying to build a hungry young team which is not just satisfied when they look at their bank accounts, but also when they look at the league table and see they have a lot of points."

During the break for international football, Laszlo felt sympathy for one of his predecessors at Tynecastle, George Burley, when the Scotland manager faced criticism for his handling of the squad on and off the pitch. "Everybody has problems and everyone has to resolve them," he reflected. "The important thing for the national team was getting the three points. Scotland have another chance to qualify for the World Cup and that's what matters."