Hearts coach vows to select his strongest team

ALTHOUGH Hearts have a tough return match against Sparta Prague in five days' time, Valdas Ivanauskas is not at present looking beyond tomorrow's SPL match against Aberdeen. Whatever the squad rotations and permutations available to him, the Tynecastle club's coach will apply a simple criterion to selecting the side for the visit to Pittodrie.

"I don't think about Sparta Prague," Ivanauskas said yesterday. "Our best players will play against Aberdeen. Our strongest team." Which seems simple enough, until the question is asked: what actually is Hearts' strongest team? Given the number of changes from match to match it is surely impossible to say which combination works best.

What is more, injuries to players such as Edgaras Jankauskas, Michal Pospisil and Jose Goncalves make matters more complicated still. All three remain out of action, but the first and last-named at least would have a good shout at getting into Ivanauskas' ideal line-up.

Tomorrow, though, the team should be close to the following: Craig Gordon; Robbie Neilson, Steven Pressley, Christophe Berra, Takis Fyssas; Deividas Cesnauskis, Julien Brellier, Paul Hartley, Neil McCann; Roman Bednar and Mauricio Pinilla.

The last-named is just back from injury, but has impressed in his outings so far, and should take the place of Juho Makela, the hat-trick hero in midweek. Jamie Mole will also come into consideration up front, while Bruno Aguiar also has a chance of starting. Mirsad Beslija will not be included, as he requires a scan on a jaw injury. Christos Karipidis, also injured at Recreation Park, may make it on to the bench.

The selection of his strongest line-up by Ivanauskas is no token mark of respect to Aberdeen, but an acknowledgement that Jimmy Calderwood's side have steadily improved. Indeed, they could leapfrog Hearts and go second if they take the three points tomorrow.

"They have a big chance this year," the coach said. "Four or five teams can play for the title and Aberdeen are one of these teams." He then qualified that by saying before you can be a real contender you probably need a season of being in contention like Hearts did last time. This, then, would be classed as Aberdeen's season for learning the ropes. Ivanauskas knows, though, that they will have no inclination to be given a footballing lesson by Hearts.

Taken from the Scotsman