Hearts rotation policy looks more like musical chairs

A YEAR to the weekend since George Burley was sacked as manager a few hours before the kick-off against Dunfermline, the influx of so many players of similar ability at Tynecastle has brought Hearts to a curious point in the season. The club is probably capable of fielding two half decent sides each week in the SPL but is no nearer to matching the excellence of the XI that last reached the summit of the Premier League.

Although Jim Jefferies, the Kilmarnock manager and his assistant, Billy Brown, will expect Hearts to play two wingers in a 4-4-2 formation against them today, with the Scottish internationalists Craig Gordon, Steven Pressley and Paul Hartley all guaranteed places, they must wait until the team lines are handed in to learn the identities of the other eight outfield players.

In the course of the past ten games, Hearts head coach Valdas Ivanuskas has made 55 changes. Some of these alterations have been forced on the manager by injury or suspension, but the majority have been voluntary and are an integral aspect of the rotation policy which has operated at Tynecastle this season.

When so many different faces have flitted in and out of Hearts first team over the past 12 months, it's often forgotten that most of the players who regularly commanded places under Burley's command are still at Tynecastle.

When everyone is fit, it would be possible to replace the departed Andy Webster and Rudi Skacel with Christophe Berra and either Neil McCann or Mirsad Beslija. Has anyone seen a better balanced Hearts side this season than one consisting, say, of Gordon; Neilson, Pressley, Berra, Fyssas; Beslija, Hartley, Brellier, Cesnauskis; Bednar, Jankauskas? Certainly not at Easter Road last Sunday when the team selection looked less a product of constructive rotation than a game of musical chairs. Had it not been for lapses of concentration on Hibs' part, as well as poor goalkeeping, then Hearts would surely have been made to pay for a woefully inadequate midfield performance in which Paul Hartley received little or no support from a trio of underperforming Lithuanians.

Ivanauskas and his support team of Eduard Malofeev and Anatoli Korobochka only needed to look back to the selections which pulverised Hibs at Tynecastle and Hampden in derbies last season to be reminded of the team's strengths and the pivotal role played by Julien Brellier in enabling others to play. The fact the Frenchman wasn't even on the bench against Hibs defied all reason.

Injury rather than bloody-mindedness has kept Edgaras Jankauskas out of the starting line-up for much of the season and there's no doubt the absence of the big centre-forward has been just as damaging as the sidelining of Brellier. Although Hearts have seven or eight strikers at their disposal, only Jankauskas has the strength and intelligence to hold the ball up for Hartley to make a telling break from midfield.

Ivanauskas gave an indication that the quality of his squad is much of a muchness. "There's not really a lot of difference between them," he admitted.

Change, often for change's sake, looks set to continue as Hearts' motto.
Let's go round again

VALDAS Ivanauskas has made a remarkable 55 changes to his starting line-ups over the past ten games. During that time Hearts have used 23 different players - winning five games, drawing two, and losing three.

Taken from the Scotsman