Csaba Laszlo angry with matchwinner Ismael Bouzid

Published Date: 21 December 2009
By Stuart Bathgate
CSABA Laszlo prides himself on his tactical acuity, but he almost got it spectacularly wrong yesterday when he was on the verge of substituting Ismael Bouzid a minute before the Algerian scored Hearts' winning goal against Celtic.
Annoyed by Bouzid's indiscipline in getting booked for having words with a Celtic supporter, Laszlo immediately told substitute Marius Zaliukas to prepare to go on. Before the Lithuanian could enter the field of play, however, Bouzid scored with a diving header – his first since joining the Tynecastle club last summer.

Unrepentant, Laszlo then took Bouzid off anyway, and later explained why he had been irritated by the defender. "I was angry about Bouzid's unnecessary yellow card," the Hearts manager said.

"Tactically he didn't follow me. Five minutes before I told Bouzid and Jose (Goncalves] we must play clean football without fouls and without yellow cards. He got a yellow card just for talking."

With Hearts already under pressure against ten-man Celtic, Laszlo believed a booking for either of his central defenders would put them in the perilous position of either laying off a little bit or of picking up a second caution. Even after substituting Bouzid, who had been dismissed a fortnight earlier against Hamilton for picking up two yellows, Laszlo was dissatisfied with the approach some of his players took.

"In the last ten minutes we brought Celtic back into the game," he continued. "If you like to progress, specially against the big teams, you must concentrate 200 per cent on your job."

Bouzid acknowledged he should perhaps have tried harder to avoid a booking, but reckoned he had done nothing to deserve it. "I was fighting for the ball with (Marc Antoine] Fortuné. He pushed me and I went down.

"After the Celtic fanatic was direct to me. He push me, two centimetres, he push me. After I showed the supporter the ball, then I got the yellow card, I don't know why. Maybe he (the referee] thinks it's aggressiveness what I do. Maybe I'm not happy because he (the Celtic supporter] push me.

"It's nothing for me. I forget it. The most important thing today is three points. We do this and I am very happy."

Having expressed that happiness, Bouzid agreed with Laszlo's suggestion that Hearts should not get carried away as they still have a lot to work on. "It's very good today to win one game, but we must take stability and try to win two, three games," he said.

"But I am positive because we are a good team. The most important is to come back in the league. We can do it, but we need more confidence and more stability."

The same could well be said of Celtic, but Laszlo offered some words of consolation to the Parkhead side as well as praising his own players at the same time. "Congratulations to my team – this was an important three points," he stated.

"Congratulations and respect to Celtic as well. They never gave up. Individually they had better players, but the (Hearts] unit and the spirit worked together."

Taken from the Scotsman