THE ART OF DEFENDING
Return to old school at Tynecastle with Levein is just the job for Berra
CLEAR your lines, win your challenges. Stop the opposition from doing any serious damage. It sounds simple. Because it is simple. If Christophe Berra needs examples to back up his belief in the basic truths of football, particularly the defensive arts, he need only switch on his TV.
Watching a sloppy Arsenal side founder because their style isn’t backed up by an armour-plated back division, no modern-day Tony Adams-Martin Keown partnership to fend off all incoming attacks, he contrasts them with a side like Burnley.
Further afield, he sees even a Barcelona side often derided for being soft touches display a steeliness when it matters.
For a centre-half handed his Hearts debut by Craig Levein and further schooled by Mick McCarthy at both Wolves and Ipswich, the return of Levein to frontline coaching comes with a reassuring familiarity.
‘As a defender he just wants us to do the basics — head it, put tackles in, get our blocks in,’ said the Scotland star, who returned to Edinburgh in the summer.
‘Especially up here, you have to be competitive first and foremost, win the first contacts and the second balls. If you do that well, you always have a chance to win the game.
‘I made my debut under the manager and look at all the defenders who have worked under him. Your job first and foremost is to defend.
‘I wouldn’t say he (Levein) was old school. Sometimes you get fashions in football. You look down at the Premier League and there are certain things in fashion and teams are all expansive.
‘But Arsenal have been doing that for years — and they’re struggling just now. Then you look at a Burnley, who certainly aren’t all expansive… and I think you have got to work within your means.
‘Celtic are expansive but they have paid big money for certain players and they have that quality. Everyone has their own style.
‘We’re not a Barcelona or a Real Madrid — and even they need to do the basics right because, if you don’t do that against the bigger teams, you get caught.
‘The manager I have worked under the most is Mick McCarthy and he was similar.
‘I think football changes but it’s swings and roundabouts. First and foremost you’ve got to defend and try and keep the ball out of the net.
‘If you can do the other bits as well, then you have a good chance.’
Lest any Hearts fans of a more cavalier aesthetic fear that the return of Levein means official clubs suits of sackcloth and ashes on match days, everyone involved in the first team — Berra included — is keen to stress the desire to play some sparkling football.
In time. Perhaps when they get back to a rebuilt Tynecastle.
For now, the former Scotland boss is going step by step. Starting at the back. And making his expectations very clear.
‘Craig and Mick were both centrehalves, they know what it means,’ added Berra. ‘If you can dominate your striker, it gives you a foothold towards winning the game. If they’re having a bad day, it’s good for you.
‘You learn a lot — but they can also be your biggest critics! That’s something you need to take on the chin.’
Following a good performance in a draw with Aberdeen at Murrayfield and a ‘horrible’ — Levein’s own word — away win at Hamilton, the head coach hasn’t had much reason to berate his players.
Berra has been happy to offer his team-mates half-joking warnings about paint being stripped from the dressing-room walls by the ferocity of Levein’s diatribes.
‘I am sure, when we don’t reach the standards he expects, we’ll know all about it,’ said the 32-year-old, back in the Scotland starting XI since his return to the capital.
‘We’ve had jokes about it in the changing room because it’s something that some of them have not experienced yet; it’s maybe only me and Prince (Buaben, who worked under Levein at Dundee United).
‘I’d like to see some of the faces when it happens! I might be on the end of it, you have to take it on the chin. When I look back at 18, 19 you feel maybe undone but when I look back now it was really good for me, it was a learning curve. It probably made me the person I am.’
Winning first, second and third balls, refusing to bend the knee, figuring out a way to squeeze opponents until they squeak, all while living in mild terror of a rollicking from the boss.
It’s not old school. It’s classic. And very much back in fashion down Gorgie way.