Rix juggling expanded squad and expectations

The Edinburgh club are still convinced that they can chase Celtic all the way to the Bank of Scotland Premierleague title, but most pundits will know that the best chance the club have of lifting silverware this season comes in the shape of the Scottish Cup.

Vladimir Romanov, the owner, has backed his side for long-term success by bringing in 11 new players during the January transfer window, yet if Hearts are to progress to the fifth round of the cup this season by beating Aberdeen this afternoon, it will be largely down to the efforts of those players already established at Tynecastle. After watching his side demolish city rivals Hibernian 4-1 last weekend, Graham Rix, the head coach, is in no mood to make wholesale changes to the line-up.

Defeat against Aberdeen could herald a number of changes for the midweek Premierleague fixture away to Dundee United, but even then Rix is in no hurry to make disrupt a winning team. “After the win against Hibs and then the new faces coming in, everybody has been given a lift,” Rix said. “The training quality has already gone up. All the new guys are physically fit and able, but obviously it takes a little while to adjust to new surroundings, a new coach and new team-mates.

“The team last Saturday performed really well and if I chopped and changed the team to give people a rest and we lost, the press would be all over me. It won’t be a brand new XI, but there might be one or two changes. It will be a softly- softly approach. We have another game on Tuesday, but the priority is to get out there and win this game.”

One certain change is that Paul Hartley, the influential midfield player, will be out, suspended, giving hope to at least one of the newcomers.

Takis Fyssas, the full-back, gave his backing to the club for bringing in such a large number of new players and suggested that cup victory against Aberdeen could be mark a significant step to the club’s long-term aim of challenging the hegemony of the Old Firm.

Fyssas, who arrived at Tynecastle during the summer, has established himself as part of one of Scotland’s most parsimonious defences and is not concerned that his position could be undermined.

“It is good that we have taken on a lot of players,” he said. “It is good for the team because after this everybody will understand that we want to be a big team. Next year, if we want to be in the Champions League, we must have a big squad. I have experience of this and I know that you need a lot of players in the squad.

“There will be competition for places, and the training will be of a better quality too, but nobody has to be afraid to lose his position, all the players should play for Hearts. Some will have to wait until later, that is football. In all my career I have thought like this, I have a good mentality about this.”

Fyssas has played European football for both Benfica and Panathinaikos and is convinced that Hearts can become a force in Europe. “It will take time, but we will be a very big team in Scotland and in Europe,” he said.

Fyssas also knows how important a cup run can be as a precursor to greater things. Playing well for a smaller team in a cup game against Panathinaikos earned him his first contract with the Greek giants, and in his first season with Benfica he scored a goal as his side defeated FC Porto in the Portuguese Cup final.

“The cup is very important for me,” he said. “In my first cup game in Greece I played for a small team and we beat Panathinaikos 1-0. It was a very big surprise and we enjoyed it. The next year, Panathinaikos signed me.

“Also, in my first year in Portugal we took the cup off of (José) Mourinho’s Porto. It was important for Benfica, it was their first cup in eight years and the next year we took the championship.

“The cup gave us confidence and that is important. It is my dream now to win the cup for Hearts”

Taken from timesonline.co.uk