BRAVE HEART
Dropping captain Berra proves Stendel will be ruthless in his bid to avoid relegation
YOU could liken it to pulling a tooth without anaesthetic. Or conducting emergency surgery in a field hospital under heavy fire.
Daniel Stendel’s decision to bench club captain Christophe Berra — a painful but necessary call in a crisis — proves one thing, though.
The new Hearts head coach certainly doesn’t want for bravery or boldness. Backed into a corner, unable to countenance another performance undermined by his skipper’s unsuitability for his particular playing philosophy, the German did the right thing.
As he prepares to replace his scalpel with an axe over the coming month, with the impending departure of ‘marquee’ summer signing Glenn Whelan just one part of the inevitable house-cleaning, Stendel’s message has been received — and understood — by the players now fighting for their futures.
Clevid Dikamona, who looked comfortable enough holding a high line in central defence after taking Berra’s place in Sunday’s 1-1 home draw with Aberdeen, says the decision to drop the former Scotland stopper proved a point.
The French-born Congolese international said: ‘That shows everyone the manager is not interested in reputations — that just because Christophe is the captain he has to be on the pitch.
‘It’s the same for everyone. If you are not good enough one week, maybe because you feel tired or something, then you are not sure to be in the team.
‘You need to give 100 per cent of yourself every day, every week. That’s good.
‘So I don’t feel any pressure because I know I just have to try and give my best to be in this team.
‘Christophe came to me before the game and gave me some advice. He’s still the skipper — that doesn’t change because he is on the bench. He does the job very well.
‘He’s still the guy who represents this club more than every one of us.
‘So maybe he understands why the manager changed things and gave me the opportunity to play.
‘He just told us all to go out and try to win against Aberdeen, so we can start to climb the table.’
Berra’s character, professionalism and commitment has never been questioned following his return to Hearts in 2017.
He’s one of the game’s most solid individuals, dedicated to a craft that has given him a fine career.
A month short of his 35th birthday, however, the ex-Ipswich and Wolves centre-half hasn’t performed at his peak for some time.
Having struggled as much as anyone in the latter stages of the Craig Levein era, he had to fear the worst when Stendel arrived and started talking about pressing higher up the park, leaving all of that acreage in behind the back line for swift opponents to exploit.
It’s been hard to watch him suffer. Really difficult to hear some Hearts fans turn against a player whose initial breakthrough — back in late 2003 — generated so much excitement among supporters. But the threat of relegation, a very real danger for a side now five points adrift at the bottom of the table, leaves no room for sentiment. Having lost his first four games at the helm, Stendel had to do something different against Aberdeen. Dikamona (below) just happened to be in the right place at the right time. The 29-year-old said: ‘It feels good because, if I remember, it’s the first time the manager has had confidence in me and put another centre-back on the bench. ‘So, for me, it was a special game and that’s why I tried my best to push everyone as hard as I could to try to get something from it. He told me to show him I can play the football that he wants.
‘That’s why I tried to be available for the keeper, to play from the back, to defend as high as possible.
‘But I also tried to be myself and just give everything.
‘This is maybe what we needed before, to have some competition between us.
‘When you have competition, that pushes everyone to give their best for the team. And that’s good.
‘I don’t know if I got points from the manager, maybe not. But next week when we are back at training, I have to give 100 per cent of myself to be again in the first 11.
‘Christophe, John (Souttar) and Craig (Halkett) are the same; we need to give everything.
‘That’s what the manager has brought to this team.
‘He wants us to bring an intensity to training and, since he has been here, the intensity is good. And the competition in the group is good for the future.
‘We started to see the signs two or three days ago.
‘It’s hard to say we did well before that because we lost the games but, against Aberdeen, yeah, we did the things he wants us to do. So, maybe this game was special.’
The atmosphere in Gorgie was certainly something else on Sunday. After spending so long lambasting their own team, the Jambos fans loved watching a spirited — if still far from perfect — performance.
‘When you play at Tynecastle and give everything, the fans will always be behind you, even when we are bottom of the league, like we are now,’ said Dikamona.
‘The Aberdeen game didn’t feel like we were bottom of the league, the stadium was full, the atmosphere was amazing.
‘It is up to us to bring the fans with us every week, to have this atmosphere and put the opponent under pressure.’