Hearts: Witteveen unready and Nade unfit, complains frustrated Hearts boss Laszlo

CSABA LASZLO has admitted Christian Nade's physical condition is not good enough to merit a place in the Hearts team and insisted David Witteveen requires more time to adjust to the pressure of Scottish football.

The Tynecastle manager gave a candid assessment of his strikers and seemed to imply that Nade was not 100 per cent focused on football at present.

The Frenchman did not feature for Hearts against Celtic last Sunday or in the midweek Co-operative Insurance Cup victory over Dunfermline and Laszlo bemoaned his lack of fitness and stressed that he will only be reinstated once his condition improves.

"Christian Nade must work on his fitness and performance," he said. "His performance was not the best in the last games but Christian is a player who, if he is mentally fit and he concentrates on football, he can help the team. This is not a question but Christian is not so good in shape and not so good in form."

"It is no big secret we don't have so many strikers. Calum Elliot is injured, I try to give some chances to Gordon Smith in a hard game like against Dunfermline. The guy must feel the competition, he must feel the pressure and he can learn from this. He is too young so he needs a little bit more time. We must not press him into a situation where he can never come out."

Witteveen is still paying the price for a costly late foul in the 2-2 draw with St Johnstone earlier this month, which allowed Martin Hardie to equalise in stoppage time.

"David needs more time," said Laszlo. "He played in Austria in the amateur leagues somewhere. Now he must play in front of 60,000 against Rangers and against Celtic, teams who play in the Champions League and the Europa League. This is a big difference.

"Mentally and physically having 20,000 all the time at Tynecastle making a lot of noise, this is professional sport and it is very difficult to understand in the head. Nothing against David Witteveen but, to compare, (Christos] Karipidis would never make the foul like the one against St Johnstone. The guy was not wrong, he wanted to help the team. But he did not account for the situation and what could happen if you do this foul on 94 minutes.

"Against Celtic, if Lee Wallace does not let the ball go out and he puts it up front, there is a different situation. He was convinced (that he would win a goal kick]. The young players are very honest, they need to think about the consequences of their decisions.

"Society creates a lot of problems in this direction. If you go to some companies and you look for a new job, you must be 25 and full with energy. You must have the experience of a 50-year-old guy, you must speak five languages and you must have 40 years' work experience. Is it possible? No.

"If you are 20, or 27, you are finished with university but you don't have the possibility to speak five languages. You cannot have 40 years' work experience behind you and you cannot have the life experience of the 50-year-old guy. That is why you must give time.

"What can I do at the moment? Nothing. I go out and work. I never say my team is bad, my team is the best."