Fans warned after Hearts chief denied striker

The Tynecastle manager has been left frustrated by the decision not to fund a move for an experienced hitman to strengthen his side in attack, with injury already depriving him of Calum Elliot and having only Christian Nade, David Witteveen and Gary Glen at his disposal.

Having met with the board this week, Laszlo has been forced instead to rely on youth and has promoted under-19 frontman Gordon Smith to the first-team squad.

Andrew Driver will return to the bench for tonight's game against Dinamo Zagreb, having been ruled out with tendinitis in his foot so far this season, and Arvydas Novikovas will join him among the substitutes to restore some potency to the Hearts frontline.

The lack of firepower has been a major concern for Laszlo since his appointment as manager last year and he admitted he has worries over the levels of consistency that his younger players will be able to provide.

He said: "Elliot is out of the team for the next eight weeks, at the moment, we don't have so many goalscoring strikers but maybe we have to look to our midfield.

"We will have Andrew Driver on the bench so that gives us more threat and Novikovas will be on the bench, he is also a very dangerous player.

"I have brought Gordon Smith into the first team from the under-19s and he must now help us for the rest of the season.

"I spoke with the board and we will not get any more players, we must carry on with only the people that we have got right now.

"We must introduce more young players into the team. At the moment the club won't bring in any new players.

"With all the injuries, it is very frustrating but if the club decides this then I accept this and I don't have a problem with this.

"I know what I have to do, I have Smith from the Under-19s and maybe now I must look for a new shape for the team because I had hoped to play 4-4-2 this season.

"I know what it will be like with a young team, it will be up and down, up and down, because you don't have the stability.

"I don't know if we will be second, third, eighth, ninth or tenth but we must, at the moment, aim to be in the best six and take it from there."

Laszlo's options have been reduced even further for tonight's match against Dinamo Zagreb in the qualifiers for the Europa League as Eggert Jonsson – who captained Hearts against Rangers last weekend – has been ruled out for up to six weeks because of surgery to cure a hernia problem.

He continued: "Eggert will be out for a few weeks because he has a hernia problem, which is very unusual for a young man.

"On Tuesday, he had some pain and told me he was uncomfortable. We had a look at him after training but we were not 100 per cent sure so he had a scan and we were told that he must immediately have an operation. It is frustrating for us."