Heart of Midlothian were torn apart by Celtic at Celtic Park — and head coach Wouter Vrancken pointed the finger at his players’ individual errors rather than his own tactics. Two down inside 10 minutes, four adrift by 40, and seven conceded in total on a wretched day for the Tynecastle club’s title hopes.
Heart of Midlothian (Credits: BBC Sport)
The scenes offered echoes of Vrancken’s early weeks in charge, when heavy European qualifying defeats to Sturm Graz and Benfica saw his wide-open, attack-minded side picked apart. But this is how Hearts’ new coach plays — how the club wants him to play — and it is the same style that had carried them through a goal-laden run of 13 games with just one defeat.
Vrancken Blames Errors, Not Approach
After the match, Vrancken repeatedly blamed player mistakes for the goals while refusing to reflect on his own decisions. “We made a few individual mistakes,” he told BBC Sport Scotland. “Two set-plays killed our game at the start. All of their goals were individual mistakes and then it’s difficult to win a game.”
He insisted his players must learn and move on quickly: “The only thing that cannot happen is that everybody starts doubting now his own qualities… After Monday, it has to be gone because there’s another game to come.”
Pundits Question the Tactics
Former Hearts midfielder Andy Halliday was bewildered, suggesting Vrancken would change nothing if given the chance to replay the game. “There was no accountability,” he said. “He was talking about players’ errors, rather than his own errors, which were pretty glaring for me.”
Former Scotland striker Kris Boyd was even more astonished at Hearts going toe-to-toe with Celtic man-for-man late into a thrashing: “I’ve never seen defending like that in all my life. You’ve got to pay respect to Celtic. If you go man-for-man, they will demolish you and that’s exactly what happened there.”
The defeat came at the same venue where Hearts’ title dreams crumbled last May — a painful reminder of how far Vrancken’s project still has to go.
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Source: BBC Sport — read the full story there.