THERE’S METHOD IN THE MADNESS
First we had the Gegenpress and now Tynecastle stars are being roped together in training and made to wear goggles to improve their spatial awareness but, for Stendel, cup win over Rangers proves...
IF he thought putting wingers in wellies and blindfolding his full-backs for a session on spatial awareness would get results, Daniel Stendel wouldn’t hesitate to try it out.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, after all. And few are in more dire need of solutions than Hearts.
Stendel revealed yesterday that, faced with an unprecedented pile-up of structural problems at Tynecastle, he’d turned to some new/old methods in the hope of creating order from chaos.
Confirming that he had, indeed, roped the back four together and put players in goggles designed to sharpen their peripheral awareness, the German coach doesn’t credit a couple of slightly gimmicky sessions for Saturday’s Scottish Cup win over Rangers.
Nor would he rely solely on this kind of ploy to prep his team for tonight’s trip to Easter Road.
But he’s keeping an open mind. And he can back up the theory behind his mad-professor approach with examples from the very highest levels of the game.
Explaining the thinking that went into the defence being roped up, Stendel revealed: ‘Honestly, I hadn’t done it before.
‘In the end, it was a result of our analysis, what we had seen in games. We needed more discipline, more trust in the behaviour of team-mates when someone does things.
‘So it was one idea. The future will show whether it was the right idea or not — one game is not enough. How does it work? Everything we do, if we want to press high or defend deep, it’s important that we do it at the same time — and together.
‘That means not only the back four. That means all players on the pitch. It was more difficult than I expected to get this. That’s the reason why we decided to break it down — and come up with some ideas for training.
‘This was one idea. But, in the end, it’s not the secret that changes everything instantly.
‘It was an idea. And after the St Mirren game, we had a little bit more time to work on things.
‘So the focus was more on our defensive play. That doesn’t mean we want to sit deep all the time.
‘It only means that we have more trust in our defending in every part of the pitch.
‘It was useful for the last time. It’s not an idea for every time.’
The concept of players being bound together by rope — or resistance bands, if you want to get all hi-tech about it — is hardly new in football.
In the world of cones and bibs, drills that appear only remotely connected to game situations are almost the norm.
Just to take one example, there’s a Bayern Munich ‘tandem tag’ game — genuinely as simple as it sounds, players linking arms to chase each other in pairs — currently being replicated on coach education courses all over the world. So, yes, there may have been a few giggles when Stendel asked players to put on ski goggles at training last week. But hear him out. ‘Yeah, that’s also not such a special idea,’ said the former Hannover and Barnsley boss. ‘But there aren’t many opportunities to train that.
‘We just had the feeling that the players were watching the ball too much, that they didn’t look enough at the spaces, at their team-mates — and the opposition players, especially the striker.
‘It’s a big, big part of football for the best players in the world.
‘Last night, I watched Real Madrid against Barcelona. And every second, the players were looking at the space around them, looking at what could be the next ball, what the next situation could be.
‘If you have that, you don’t need a fast player. You just need a player who is quick in the head.
‘So that training was to help that side of the game for everybody.’
Against a Hibs side looking more organised and dangerous than at any point during the season, Hearts will need to be absolutely on it. There cannot be gaps. Cannot be lengthy pauses before making the right choice.
Whatever the coaching staff need to do in order to get Hearts in sync and in shape, they know that only results will validate their methods.
Stendel insists he’s not vain enough to believe that all the answers are to be found in his own store of footballing knowledge.
He’s also in no doubt over how badly Hearts need something — anything — to lift them out of their current position as relegation favourites.
‘I have some experience from the past,’ he said. ‘And what I also like, from my coaching staff and new guys, is to learn from every new situation.
‘For me, this is a new situation to have so many problems in the first weeks. The problem was not only when I came in but from before.
‘You expected some things but to need so much time wasn’t what I expected.
‘What we’ve talked about and done in the last few weeks or days, it’s not special or new for Scottish football — but we need to find the right way
to improve our game. Yeah, it’s important to be open-minded. You can have your opinion (as a coach) but you don’t play the game.
‘You need to pick up the players in this situation and this is what we try to do. But I can say it’s one of the biggest challenges for me. I can say I’ve learned the most in the last couple of weeks.’
The best are learning all the time, of course. Given Hearts’ current predicament, with one win in their last 14 Premiership games leaving them cemented to the foot of the league table, there isn’t much time for teaching these players a long list of new tricks.
If they try to press high against a Hibs side boasting the pace of Martin Boyle on the counter, they had better get it right. Even then, there will still be hairy moments.
In the circumstances, and with public health very much on the agenda, perhaps travelling fans should take their beer goggles — if not actual blindfolds — across the capital for this one.