75 MISSED CHANCES. AND THAT’S IN THREE GAMES
Levein laments lack of firepower
THEY may be undefeated and top of their Betfred Cup table but Craig Levein admits a remarkable 75 chances missed over three games by his Hearts side is causing him some early-season concern.
While ‘expected goals’ may sound more the preserve of his predecessor Ian Cathro, you can be certain the current Tynecastle boss is demanding more bang for his buck from his strikers.
Hearts have netted five times in the Group A victories over Stenhousemuir and Cowdenbeath plus the 1-1 draw with Dundee United. East Fife are next in the firing line today and Levein wants to see the benefit of the extra shooting practice he ordered in training.
‘It depends on the stats you look at but we’ve had between 65 and 75 goal attempts in the last three games and we’ve scored five goals,’ said Levein (below), who says he is making progress on signing a new midfielder with Olly Lee close to agreeing a move to Southend.
‘On Thursday, we couldn’t even score in training — and I lost the plot with them a wee bit. It is a focus thing and it has to be taken seriously.
‘When you create that amount of chances but don’t score, then we need to address that. The focus for us is to keep creating the chances. We’re doing work in training and the goals will come, I’m sure.
‘How do we do that? We just do more finishing practice. We try to keep the focus on basically putting the ball in the back of net clinically rather than trying to be too clever about it.
‘There’s nothing we can do about good defending, blocked shots and goalkeepers having worldies. But we can focus on hitting the target, particularly from crosses and at close range. That’s doable and is what we’ve been doing the last few days.’ A draw will guarantee Hearts’ progress to the knock-out stages but Levein knows his side cannot take Darren Young’s men lightly at New Bayview after seeing them shock United at Tannadice. ‘This will be a difficult one,’ said Levein (below). ‘The pitch will be dry and the ball moves slowly on dry AstroTurf. ‘Generally, the favourites in the game are so because they have better technique, the ability to move the ball around quicker and expose the opposition. ‘The fact the pitch is dry means we won’t have as much of an advantage as we would normally. ‘The 2-0 win up at Tannadice was a bit of a surprise but all credit to East Fife. We had people at the game and by all accounts it was deserved. ‘So that gives us even more reason to be a bit more cautious and not think we’ve got any God-given right to win this game. We have to work to create the chances and work to take them.’ Conor Washington will miss the Fifers clash with a facial injury sustained on Wednesday against Stenhousemuir. Meanwhile, youngster Andy Irving has signed a new contract keeping him at Tynecastle until summer 2021. The 19-year-old has impressed Levein with his development over the close season and is expected to push for a place in the heart of midfield in the coming campaign. Irving started Hearts’ game against Dundee United and, despite the outing being marred by a late red card, he scored the goal which secured a 1-1 draw.