Hearts: Sergio fumes over lack of aggression
Paulo Sergio
PAULO SERGIO admitted Hearts made life too easy for Motherwell at Fir Park on Saturday and accused his players of lacking aggression after a demanding schedule of matches.
The Tynecastle manager also revealed confusion over David Templeton’s recurring groin problem, which forced the winger’s substitution 38 minutes into the 3-0 defeat.
Sergio was disappointed by what he felt was a lack of application and desire from the Hearts players. When Motherwell were reduced to ten men with the 51st-minute dismissal of midfielder Keith Lasley, the visitors could not capitalise on the numerical advantage.
“It was too easy for Motherwell, there was no aggression at all without the ball. We allowed them to score and there was no reaction,” said Sergio.
“Maybe what we talked about before the game – playing every three days – we paid the price. I felt our aggression wasn’t on the pitch. There were silly things. It’s great we are going to have all week to recover and work normally again after a month and a half which was too hard for us.
“They closed the spaces and we worked the ball to try and create chances but it wasn’t enough. It was not good at all, congratulations to Motherwell.”
Hearts’ game plan was upset when Templeton had to be withdrawn due to injury. “I can understand that but it’s not up to me to speak about that,” Sergio told the club website. “Our physio or Templeton can speak about it [the injury]. It’s good, it’s not good, it’s good, it’s not good – I can’t understand that.”
Motherwell are now nine points ahead of Hearts in third place in the Scottish Premier League and Sergio believes there is too much focus on where his team will finish this season.
“We shouldn’t be focused on that. It’s a hard season with a lot of problems so don’t be worried about third position.
“We should be worried about the performance. We will see our position at the end of the league.”
Meanwhile, Hearts striker John Sutton enjoyed a winning start to his loan spell with Central Coast Mariners on Saturday, making an impressive debut in the 2-0 win over Wellington Phoenix. “I was very happy with his performance, I knew what I was getting and the type of player I wanted to give us something totally different,” said Graham Arnold, the Central Coast Mariners coach.
“I thought his performance was excellent.”
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Comments
There are 19 comments to this article
Page 1 of 2
Baldrick
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 11:43 PMIf by some miracle we find ourselves in the Cup Final against Celtic, I will be there but I won't be able to look. If we put out that team who played Motherwell, the prospect is absolutely frightening.
ferguson's rocket
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 10:20 PM#17 very old Jambo - 100% agree... paulo still feels 'new' to me and if he stays, i would hope he's learnt something about our league this year that will give him a good shot at next season - plenty games left to start bringing in the young ones.... come the Hearts there :-)
BC Jambo
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 07:20 PMAs soon as i saw the team on saturday i thought we would get beat. A number of the players in the starting line up lack fight so is Sergio really suprised that we went on to be out fought?! Too many players with no fight and no guile. Obua and Adrian should never be more than a sub as they offer almost nothing and as for Driver he is a waste of oxygen these days. Great shame as he looked like he was going to be a star 3-4 years ago. Sergio would be well advised to start blooding the already named u19s as a host of current first team players are treading water. The fans will stick with the kids as long as the effort is there but have had it with players going through the motions goodness knows we have seen enough of them the last few years. I genuinely like Sergio but his ideas of how to play the game dont work with the teams he picks for the simple reason a lot of the players are not nearly good enough passers of the ball. Is anyone comfortable watching zally trying to knock it about and there are others just as guilty. For that reason i d only resign Black.ths summer.
Hen Broon
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 07:19 PM#15 I can assure you The Tache will be concerned that it looks like Hibs losing out 'again' on £720k (the difference betwen 3rd & 11th if your figues were correct....they R not BTW!) .
First Green
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 07:07 PMDid Hearts not collapse in second half of last season as well? Probably should be giving younger players a chance but maybe Vlad bankrolled Skacel`s contract and others on condition they play every week or Sergio realises top 6 place is now in danger (if you do scrape into top 6, there`ll then be pressure to be 5th and not 6th etc though financially Europe can only interest Hearts if they avoid expensive trips with small home crowds that mid July ties usually mean). Think there`s also a payment of about 90k per league position which will be a bigger consideration at Hearts than at clubs with healthier financial situation.
Robbo27Hammerof the hibs
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 06:50 PM#6, you make a good point there about players being out of contract at end of the season and this affecting them, got me thinking about a comment sergio made about kello, that his mind could be on not getting injured or his heart not really in it anymore, so what is the difference between kello and players that are out of contract surely they will have a good idea that thier contracts are not going to be renewed so they will be concentrating on not getting injured and it follows thet thier hearts will not be 110% into getting involved in a fight when up against it
Robbo27Hammerof the hibs
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 06:37 PMwe must go back to bonouse's for a win being worth fighting for, a smaller basic wage (£2,500-£3,000) per week,same again for a win with sliding scale for away draws, home draws,
Baldrick
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 05:14 PMThese are all great posts. If Sergio genuinely believes that with our massive squad we can't cope with a bit of fixture congestion, let's hope we don't qualify for Europe.
what a chancer
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 04:57 PMas i have said before since vlad arrived with friends they do not pick the team but they pick the squad and paulo will make do with what he gets.hence the rearon players are not dropped at cetain tram depos where they would be better off.
Hen Broon
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 03:53 PMAgree with the general consencus. Do you play a knackered Elioit up front on his own or utelise our 6ft 3 centre forward who has fresh legs. So you play Mrowiec in central mid (tired or otherwise) or do you utelise our fresh as a daisy Denis P. Do you play Driver who is totally lacking confidence or Temps who was clearly not fit or do you give the fresh legs of Novik & Morton a run. I realise it is not as simple as that & U cannot just throw them all in but I stand by my previous comment that the current 19's (who won again at the weekend) would have gave Well a better game than those selected on Saturday. No point in SERGIO highlighting tiredness(does not stack in any case) ,selecting said tired players & then using it as an excuse.
jambo2006
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 02:44 PMI'd rather see Holt, Denis P, Smith, McHattie etc given the cameo roles and places on the bench that Obua and Driver are getting...those two are gone nxt season, Driver would be useful if match fit but again needs game time to achieve it, yet again whats happening with the medical team is Temps being asked to play whilst carrying an injury ? Suso not match fit supposedly...what do they do at training all week ffs ? Sergio you've got a handful of young'uns champing at the bit to pull on the maroon jersey..what have you got to lose in the league by playing them ? imo absolutely nothing and probably much more to gain !!
DT is a JT
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 02:32 PM"Paulo smell the coffee" we keep playing the same gash week in week out put half the crap in the stand and lets see some younger players, at least give them a chance not Glen though he has used up all his chances. Stop playing with one striker, Eliott runs his heart out with no gain pair him up with young Smith. Come on Paulo you have a huge squad to pick from start to use them and punt those crap players who are out of contract this summer as they are not trying now and that is with getting paid on time.
View From The Shed
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 01:50 PMSergio has one of the largest squads in the SPL but is reluctant to use it to it,s full. He MUST start blooding some of the youngsters.We,re not saying sling three or four of them into one game.One a game with another on the bench coming on as sub must give them experience and they are going to need it.As four says forget about 3rd. or 4th lets finish in the top six and give the young players a break. It will soon be time to start assessing who is goin g to be there next season and who is not so start revolving your squad Sergio.
Hardie1874
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 01:42 PM#5 Agree with what you say about Skacel, don't know what has happened to him but in every game since he signed his extension he just looks like he isn't bothered. A lot of players are out of contract at the end of this season and maybe this is effecting them, in the modern day players play for a wage, thats it. Nobody plays for the jersey anymore which is a real shame. We need more Ian Black's on the team, fans of the club who want nothing more than to win every game. Maybe Romanov should stop paying their wages again, they played well when they wanted their money, now that they have it none of them care!
busbyfth
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 01:16 PM# 1 Since Skacel re-signed, he has looked unmotivated and lazy. Great skill, but needs cajoled.Also - Webster recently has had two or three poor matches. Templeton usually has fine first halfs and awful second periods.
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