Zaliukas tumbles down Hearts pecking order

"I know Zaliukas can be very valuable and be a great player, but this is a signal for everybody from my side," said Laszlo. "The team is important, the club is important, not the names. This is not a free ticket to come back into the team. 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 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. If somebody doesn't like this he has two choices: he can accept it and stay, or he can go."

Another player set for a ban is striker Christian Nade, whose yellow card in Saturday's Clydesdale Bank Premier League win over Aberdeen means he will sit out the home match against Dundee United on Saturday week.

Meanwhile, former Dinamo Moscow defender Arunas Klimavicius is at Hearts on a week-long trial. The 26-year-old left-footed Lithuanian most recently spent time with Vitesse Arnhem after leaving Dinamo.

Laszlo said: "We're bringing Arunas across to Edinburgh so we can look at him more closely with the first team. After that, we'll decide together whether he might be a candidate to join us."

Hearts winger Saulius Mikoliunas could return to first-team training later this week. The 24-year-old has been out of action with a knee injury since November's win at St Mirren.

Laszlo said: "He is nearly there. We're happy that Miko can soon rejoin the team. He will need time to find his sharpness, but this can help us in the last part of the season."

Taken from the Scotsman