Interview: Hearts midfielder Mehdi Taouil stands fast after observing Ramadan

MOIRA GORDON
Published on Sunday 2 September 2012 02:28

MEHDI Taouil may simply believe that Hearts are going to get stronger as the season goes on, but he knows for a fact that he will. The Muslim had the difficult task of completing pre-season training and embarking on the new campaign while also observing Ramadan. But, after a month of fasting, which he says posed problems he simply had to overcome, he is now feasting on the plaudits gained from Hearts’ Europa League play-off performance at Anfield on Thursday and even looking forward to the bread and butter SPL outings.

“It’s been very hard for me in the last few weeks because of Ramadan,” confirmed Taouil. “Just when it finished we started to have midweek games and I’m so tired now. It’s been a tough month for me, but we have an important game on Sunday, against Dundee, and, like the manager has told us, it’s OK being proud after Liverpool but we have to get our minds on Dundee – it’s important to get three points.”

The midfielder defied the difficulties of fasting during daylight hours to produce two of his best performances for the Tynecastle club against Brendan Rodgers’ megabucks stars and he said it said was a mark of how well the capital club had done in the first leg that, even with a 1-0 lead and home advantage, the Liverpool boss opted to start guys like Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez.

The fact he did allowed the Morrocan a moment he will always treasure. “It’s not every day you nutmeg Steven Gerrard and I’ll always remember that,” he said. “He’s a very good player, so to play against him and Suarez was fantastic. He didn’t say anything to me when I put the ball through his legs. But my team-mates told me in afterwards that he looked at me – and he was angry.

“We proved against Liverpool we can do very good things. We have to remember that and produce it more and more throughout the season. The point wasn’t to show that our players can play at a higher level than Hearts. It was more about coming to a place like Anfield and feeling comfortable. That wasn’t easy but we did it. We played fantastically well and hopefully we showed the fans that they can count on us.”

The fact that the players worked tirelessly to press their more prestigious opponents was a reflection of the organisational work and work ethic demanded by manager John McGlynn, who said the sight of guys such as Arvydas Novikovas tracking back to get in defensive tackles is proof that the message is getting across.

“When I came to Hearts people told me about Arvydas and were very complimentary about his skill but said, if anything, his weakness would be working back,” admitted the Hearts manager. “I saw that straightaway, so we started to get it into his head that he had a great responsibility to the team and it can’t just be about when he has the ball at his feet – there’s a big game going on when you don’t have the ball. He has responded and, hopefully, that will continue. Hopefully he is getting more praise now for his all-round game. He will still carry a threat on the ball as he showed when he had that shot at Tynecastle in the first game”

But every player is buying into what he says has to be their gameplan this term.

“When you lose players like [Ian] Black, [Rudi] Skacel, [Craig] Beattie, Suso [Santana] and [Stephen] Elliott you wonder how you are going to bridge that gap. We’ve done it by putting younger players in there who are going to be enthusiastic and hungry, increasing the work ethic. [Against Liverpool], everyone worked hard but we also had enough skill and ability to cause them one or two problems when we got the ball.

“The players understood they had done a great thing and came close to creating a miracle really. Look at what they have paid for their team – [director of football] John Murray tells me ours cost £50,000. On that scale it was a moral victory.”

Taouil says they now all have to dig deep against Dundee today, then recharge the batteries next week. “After this game, it’s the international break and I’ll have a good rest next week,” he said. “I feel I’m only going to get better now, in terms of my strength and fitness. But Ramadan is something I have to cope with. During it, I still did the full training, everything the same as the rest of the team.”

It’s that work ethic that McGlynn wants and it is an approach that served them well on Thursday. The real indication of success, though, will be how well they can replicate that performance on domestic duty.

Taken from the Scotsman