Laszlo's positive thinking pays off

"If you talk with a guy who is 1m 50cm and tell him he is very tall, like 2m, he believes he is really tall and he feels good.

"It is like David and Goliath in the Bible. If you keep talking to players about weaknesses, after two weeks they believe they are weak.

"It is my philosophy to make my players strong. I tell my players they have something special, because to play in the Scottish Premier League you must have something special. Then they want to get stronger and stronger and this is my target. I can talk a lot about weaknesses but, over the years, I learned that working on strengths makes players stronger.

"It is positive thinking and I have always had that. It has not changed my life but it kept me in the right direction with Ferencvaros, the Hungarian national team, Uganda, and here at Hearts." Laszlo has also implemented more of a work ethic at Riccarton and now has several members of his squad working over and above the scheduled team training sessions.

"We have a lot of young players with good spirit," he continued. "They understand that, if they would like to change their lives, they must work in training and in the games and take what we learn in training. People say football is a simple game, but football is a very difficult game. It is a very mental game. All week you must work with the players to be mentally strong and to believe.

"The team showed a very high spirit against Aberdeen last week. The three points were very important. Against Falkirk and Hamilton we lost two games which normally we must win. This made the Aberdeen game a very precious three points. It was good to show for ourselves that the other two games had been unlucky."

Hearts' Lithuanian winger, Saulius Mikoliunas, is nearing a return to first-team duty following knee ligament damage. He was not considered for today's SPL encounter with St Mirren but could feature against Dundee United next weekend, much to his manager's delight.

"Maybe he will be ready to play ten or 15 minutes," said Laszlo. "We are heading for the finish to the season so we need all our players. At the moment, he does not have any pain and he is okay s o far."

Danish forward Mike Tullberg is also expected back at Riccarton imminently after recovering from a torn thigh muscle in his homeland.

"This weekend is the deadline and I hope everything is okay with Tullberg," continued Laszlo. "Last week, I talked with the physios and they told me the deadline. We have daily information about his development and, at the moment, everything is okay. I hope nothing happens this weekend and he will be back fit."

Taken from the Scotsman