Caixinha must wake up and smell the coffee
Hearts head coach Ian Cathro has joked that the toughest challenge incoming Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha will face is finding a decent espresso when the sun goes down in Glasgow.
Caixinhaissettobeappointed as Mark Warburton’s successor at Ibrox this week in a move labelled a gamble by the likes of Kris Boyd, Derek Ferguson and Andy Walker, given his lack of experience in British football.
Having worked for two years in Portugal with Rio Ave, Cathro is acutely aware that the former União Leiria and Nacional de Madeira boss will be forced to adjust to a plethora of changes, from the often industrial style of football to the hungry media landscape in Scotland.
“The fact life ends here at 5pm will be a change for someone used to Portugal,” said Cathro with a smile. “It’s difficult to go somewhere and have a really good espresso at eight or nine o’clock at night!
“The ball being in the sky a little bit more often takes some getting used to as well. In every game of football in this league – if you take away a couple that involve Celtic – you are going to have a prolonged bit of the game that is a scrap, a fight, with lots of fouls that stop play.
“The free-kick goes in the box and there’s a percentage of the game that is gone to that. But, really, a lot of the time it’s simple life things you need to adjust. Life is different here. The media scrutiny is probably similar, but in Portugal you have three daily newspapers about football and they talk more about football. Everyone’s tactics and football and more technical things will be under more scrutiny and talked about. Here, we are more headline and story driven.”
Cathro expects some onlookers to view Caixinha with a healthy does of cynicism but sees no reason why the Portuguese – who has also worked in the Gulf, Romania, Greece and Mexico – cannot confound the critics.
He added: “Suspicion does exist, but most people who have come into that situation are not coming into that for the very first time. Most people who come here from outside have already been to other places. These guys [like Caixinha] are ready to deal with these things.” Rookie Hearts boss Ian Cathro admits managing the Tynecastle side has been tougher than he expected.
The former Valencia and Newcastle coach was Hearts’ director of football Craig Levein’s bold choice to replace Robbie Neilson. But so far the 30-year-old has struggled to get his message over to his squad.
Despite being given the green light to make nine January signings, Hearts have continued to stagger under the Dundonian, winning just four of his first 15 games in charge.
That has prompted the critics who questioned his appointment in the first place to sharpen their blades and Cathro, pictured, admits his first three months in the job have involved a steep learning curve.
Asked if he had found the job more difficult that he had first imagined, he said: “There is nobody in the world who could sit in this chair in this moment and, based on the run of results we’ve had, say no to that question.
“Was my expectation for things to come this way? No it wasn’t.”
Convincing wins over Rangers and Motherwell at the start of February suggested the tide had turned, but since then Hearts have gone five games without victory.
Cathro added: “A lot of times, the games in this league can make it more difficult for us to dominate play the way that we want to.
“For example, we’ve had situations where we’ve made an error or missed chances and as the game goes on there is maybe some anxieties or frustrations and if we go behind, it becomes more difficult.
“That’s the same in every league in the world but maybe more so here because you have every single team in the league who fight and scrap right until the very end, teams who are happy to defend with ten men and who will attack very direct.”