Hearts boss laying down the law

"I know Zaliukas can be very valuable and be a great player, but this is a signal for everybody from my side," Laszlo said today. "The team is important, the club is important, not the names. This is not a free ticket to come back into the team.

"At the moment I don't think about changing too much. We must think about the future as Zaliukas cannot play for three weeks. We must help Karipidis and Jonsson to play together more. It is important for Jonsson and Karipidis to play together and I don't see a big reason to change this. It is my intention to keep these two players together.

"I told the players in the dressing room before that discipline is very important. Now we have a case with Zaliukas, a player who had a lot of red cards last season and now three this season. We must think about this.

"Zaliukas had a very good partnership with Christophe Berra, but with Berra gone Zaliukas must be the leader in defence. Zaliukas has the potential to grow in this position and he must grow now. He must also take my help because I help every player. I have helped Berra, Driver, Jonsson, everybody, but I am a coach who will never accept indiscipline.

"If you don't have discipline you can't play in my team. The win against Aberdeen and the other games we have won 1-0 or 2-1, these are results of discipline and concentration. This is my kind of coaching and if somebody doesn't like this he has two choices: He can accept it and stay or he can go."

Striker Christian Nade has also incurred a ban following his yellow card against Aberdeen. He will miss Hearts' match against Dundee United on Saturday week.

Taken from the Scotsman