Ex-Hearts boss Laszlo: how to do a number on the Old Firm

Published on Monday 24 January 2011 11:27

Hearts' next trips to Glasgow will make or break title dream - one man knows how to thrive against big two

THE ultimate test of Hearts' championship challenge comes this Wednesday and next with visits to Celtic Park and Ibrox respectively. After beating Rangers at Tynecastle, there is now the altogether different task of prising results from Glasgow to keep pace in the SPL title race.

Saturday's home encounter with St Johnstone should not be overlooked, but success on Old Firm territory is regarded as the holy grail for managers outwith Scotland's largest city. Sometimes it can define an entire season. The seething hostility, bustling crowds and high-octane occasion can intimidate even the most seasoned professionals. Csaba Laszlo, during his 18-month tenure as Hearts manager, thrived on every second of it.

Taking points from Rangers and Celtic became the Hungarian's forte in Scotland. In 13 jousts with the Old Firm, he lost only five. Four trips to Parkhead produced a win, two draws and one solitary defeat, whilst Hearts secured two draws from four games at Ibrox under his stewardship. Outfoxing Gordon Strachan, Tony Mowbray and Walter Smith was Laszlo's speciality.

He doesn't need coaxing to discuss the subject from his temporary home in Belgium, where he is coaching the Jupiler Pro League club Charleroi until the end of the season. He knows Hearts are seven points behind Celtic ahead of Wednesday's engagement and require a result to maintain title aspirations. He explained the different aspects which, when put together, helped him assemble a thoroughly respectful record in Glasgow.

"The first thing is most players and teams go to Ibrox and Parkhead like losers. When they get there they have already lost the game. So first you must change the mentality. Psychologically, you must talk all week and play the game down. If the players know they are playing Rangers or Celtic they train completely different, they are completely motivated.

"The manager must explain during the week that this is a normal game, that the Celtic and Rangers players have two legs and two hands just like everybody else. The crowd is bigger and some players are scared of the big crowd. If you can manage to take these thoughts out of the players' heads, you can prepare your team for a normal game against St Mirren or Aberdeen. I don't make a difference between Rangers or Celtic or St Mirren. This was maybe the secret.

"The next thing is the right tactics. Every Friday I showed my players video analysis and I still do this here in Belgium. They must know their strengths and work on their weaknesses, and all the free-kicks and set-pieces must be prepared.

"Then you must find the weakness of your opponents. Every team has a weakness and you must try to be strong wherever that weakness is. I give you an example. If we had (Andy) Driver on the left side and another quick player on the right side, I was of the opinion that we did not need two strikers up front. If we had one striker we played 4-3-3 and used the wide areas.

"We don't send balls forward for the striker in a one-against-one situation because we know Celtic and Rangers are strong in the air both in defence and central midfield. But, if we play with two touches and move the ball very quickly, we can cause problems especially on the right and left side. We did this and all of these things made a difference."

Laszlo's enthusiasm for football remains intense, his memories of Scotland vivid. He recalls the days spent on the training fields of Riccarton working on specific situations ahead of Hearts' games against the Old Firm. How he devised tactics for playing with ten men in Glasgow, his plans for stopping marauding full-backs, and how to deal with extensive injury-time.

"I don't like to talk about referees but I remember one game against Celtic when we were 1-0 ahead," he continued. "There was five minutes of stoppage time added and there were no injuries or time-wasting. You must know that in these last minutes the opposition will put a lot of balls forward. To survive this you must be ready for it. We trained for that situation.

"You must be prepared for every small detail. For this reason I think we got those results against the Old Firm. Most managers in Scotland play with classical formations.

"Every manager knows everyone else. At Hearts right now there is Kevin Kyle and Stephen Elliott up front and they know every ball will be shot to the front and then there are the second balls. Or every ball will go to Kevin Kyle's head and from there comes the most danger.

"If you are the opposition manager you must know to stop the crosses to Kyle, or you can put one man in front of Kyle and one behind him to take the second balls. Then you have more chance to stop his game.

"When we played Celtic, (Andreas) Hinkel was always a player under Tony Mowbray who I knew had one tactical situation. He put the ball inside and tried to get our left-back to move infield. Then he would come from behind into space to take the ball again and make a cross. My players closed the area and immediately Hinkel had a big problem. Hinkel's tactic did not work but he did not change, he tried again and again and again. I tried to study the opponents and I gave the information to my players. We were fully prepared."

Laszlo executed one of his finest tactical plans at Ibrox a year ago as Hearts tried to reorganise following the senseless dismissal of Christian Nade. Shunting the industrious teenager Scott Robinson into a wide-right role, Laszlo set up for the closing stages without a recognised striker and saw Robinson score the opening goal 15 minutes from time. Watching the amiable Hungarian emerge from the dugout in the aftermath of the goal, teeth clenched and fists pumping, was one of the most enduring images of his time at Tynecastle.

"We trained specially on how to play with ten men against Celtic and Rangers," he said. "In the second last game before Hearts sacked me, we got a very good result at Ibrox. We scored with ten men and we were winning 1-0 before we lost a goal in the last minute. Our goal was not an accident. I did not want to play the classic 4-4-1 with ten men, I told the players that if we go down to ten men we will play without a striker.

"I put Scott Robinson out on the right side and we played 4-1-4. We tried to move the ball quickly to the wide position and get behind the opponents and the goal came from this. Lee Wallace had a shot which was saved by the Rangers goalkeeper. We had no striker in the middle but the ball came out to Robinson. (Sasa) Papac did not expect Robinson to come from behind him but he did and he put the ball in the net. This was not an accident.

"You don't need to do special things against Celtic and Rangers. You need to have discipline and patience on the field. I tried to make the players strong mentally. We were always strong physically but if you are strong mentally you can get a good result. You need two or three leaders in the team and we had Michael Stewart, Marius Zaliukas and Ismael Bouzid. In my first season we had Bruno Aguiar and Christos Karipidis. These players were the pillars of the team. We finished third in my first season and, before I was sacked, we were fifth and in the semi-final of the League Cup. This was not an accident."

Unlike many other SPL managers, Csaba Laszlo went to Glasgow to thrive, not just survive.