Elliot set to lead Hearts' line at Tannadice

BARRY ANDERSON
CALUM ELLIOT will lead the Hearts attack against Dundee United this weekend but manager Csaba Laszlo has yet to decide who should support the 21-year-old and which formation his team will adopt.
With Christian Nade serving a one-match suspension, Laszlo has been forced to consider alternative striking options for the visit to Tannadice.

He has already chosen Elliot to start and is now musing over how to deploy his team and who would best complement the Scotland under-21 forward up front.

Possibilities include Gary Glen, who has performed well in an advanced midfield role recently. Bruno Aguiar, also capable of linking midfield and attack, is in the manager's mind along with Adrian Mrowiec, who is relatively untried in an attacking sense.

Elliot has made just three appearances since returning from a loan spell at Livingston in January but will relish the opportunity to impress in Nade's absence.

"Elliot will definitely get his chance in the first 11," said Laszlo. "Who plays with Elliot I have not decided. We have two or three options and we could play two or three different formations, 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1. These formations are always possible.

"In defence, we have other options which I would not like to talk about but, with the squad I have, I can play different formations and I will give Elliot his chance. The player knows this."

Laszlo stressed that the decision not to offer contracts to trialists Arunas Klimavicius and Graham Barrett was taken by him. The Lithuanian defender was available on a free transfer after leaving Dinamo Moscow, while Barrett was in the same predicament after leaving Falkirk last month.

Barrett has now joined St Johnstone until the end of the season, and Laszlo today explained why neither player stayed on in Edinburgh.

"This was my decision to let them go," he said. "Barrett, in my opinion, is a player who could have helped us for a short time. He had a very good education in football, his only handicap was that he did not play football for a long time because of injury. The other thing is we have Mike Tullberg coming back soon.

"I told Barrett he could train with us for as long as he liked and if something else happened with Tullberg we could maybe decide to take him for a short time later.

"The decision with Arunas was made because Marius Zaliukas is back soon. It is better to keep the people we have than take somebody when you don't know whether he can help you or not."

Taken from the Scotsman