Sparta loss was lowest ebb admits Valdas

VALDAS Ivanauskas understands more English than he speaks, and is capable of speaking the language a lot more than he actually does. What he is either unable or unwilling to do, though, is communicate plainly about what is going on at Hearts right now.

Ivanauskas was billed as an acting head coach after the sacking of Graham Rix, but his signing of a contract in the close season made him permanent - or at least, as permanent as anything ever is under Vladimir Romanov. The Hearts owner said last season that Ivanauskas had a chance to become a fixture at Hearts, but the more fixtures the club loses, the more chancy the coach's job becomes.

Having been knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers by AEK Athens, Ivanauskas's team are on the brink of elimination from the UEFA Cup too after their 2-0 defeat by Sparta Prague in the first leg of their first-round match at Murrayfield on Thursday night. When he was asked if that loss had been the team's worst showing since he took over, Ivanauskas agreed, but added a caveat.

"It's probably right to say this was the worst game from a football perspective I've been involved in [as coach]," he answered through an interpreter. "But there are other issues which also have an effect."

He then declined to say what those issues were, merely adding a curious non sequitur. "Football is not just about playing beautiful," he said. "There is a lot more to it."

Well, yes, true enough. Regular SPL watchers have known that for some time. Football is also about winning when you are not 'playing beautiful'. And, particularly in Scotland, it's about passion, and showing commitment to the cause, so that you often prevail over teams of superior ability.

In short, it's about quite a few things that Hearts have apparently lost the knack of doing. The team spirit which has sometimes helped them prevail over more gifted opposition was hardly to be seen on Wednesday night. Some individuals battled on, but there was no collective will to fight for the cause.

Such demoralisation often sets in at clubs after a run of bad results, and, while Hearts are still sitting third in the SPL, they have suffered such a run recently: of their past seven games, five have ended in defeat. In such circumstances, it is no surprise if harsh words and recriminations start to fly in the dressing-room after matches, and, after a period of remarkable unity, that is beginning to happen at Hearts now.

Steven Pressley as good as confirmed that when speaking on the Hearts website, heartsfc.co.uk, yesterday, although, as ever, the club captain was able to see a bright side even to such demonstrations of discord. "With disappointments comes a true test of a dressing-room," Pressley said.

"There is nothing wrong in a fall-out in a dressing-room as long as it's done in the right manner. Sometimes it requires that to get the right reaction, and hopefully that will be the case."

We may only have to wait until tomorrow, when Hearts visit Motherwell, to discover if that is the case. But the disquiet at Tynecastle appears to be deep-rooted rather than merely having sprouted from a few substandard performances, and in that case even a good win at Fir Park would do no more than paper over the cracks.

There have been suggestions that, under the training regime of Anatoli Korobochka and Eduard Malofeev - respectively the club's director of sport and an adviser - players have been getting too fatigued too easily. Pressley denied that, saying Hearts have looked tired because of the number of games players have had, including international duties.

All the same, the on-off presence of the pair at the club has brought about a change in working practices, and that change has not produced a positive outcome on the pitch. Just what the two do, and how hands-on they are, is unclear, and Ivanauskas was unwilling to offer enlightenment yesterday.

"In the modern world there are many kinds of communication," he said. "We just communicate in the usual way. The team is being discussed, and information and advice is exchanged."

The point is, if Ivanauskas is effectively doing no more as coach than putting his seniors' ideas into practice, it would be unfair were he to be scapegoated for the run of poor results. He knows, all the same, that the pressure is on, but appears to have the self-belief and determination to stick it out if he is allowed to.

"I've chosen this profession," he said. "I love this club. The situation is difficult now, and it's a challenge for me, but this is what I've chosen. If I didn't have self-confidence I'd say thank you and goodbye. But after negatives there are always positives. The season is long."

Such an insistence that everything will be all right in the end, however, is not exactly a full explanation of why they have been going badly. Hearts have lost matches in part because injured players have been missing, but mainly because too many quality players have been off form. And why have they been off form? For so many reasons, apparently, that we cannot be told.

"There are many issues that have an effect, but the list is very long," Ivanauskas said when asked to explain why normally reliable footballers such as Takis Fyssas and Neil McCann have been well below their best. "It's so long that it doesn't make sense to go through it right now."

A lot of things don't make sense at Tynecastle right now. We would be unwise to expect clarification any time soon.

Taken from the Scotsman