STENDEL SUFFERS SHOCKING START
Hearts manager is now up to speed with huge task he faces after defeat in debut
DANIEL STENDEL betrayed a limited knowledge of Hearts on unveiling day last week. At the end of his first matchday at Tynecastle, it’s safe to say he had learned plenty about his inheritance.
A team utterly impotent and directionless with its football against the team which started the day bottom of the Premiership and booed off at the end by a grumpy and fed-up Tynecastle crowd, this was a 90-minute distillation of the problems that have beset the club for the past six months and longer.
The winning goal, scored by substitute Callum Hendry, was enough to lift St Johnstone off the foot of the league table and above Hearts and into 10th place.
Manager Tommy Wright, a beleaguered figure for much of the season, celebrated in fist-pumping style in front of the away fans.
This was supposed to be Stendel’s day but the most we saw of the new manager’s firebrand personality came in the form of a half-hearted squabble with Wright on the touchline near the end.
The fans will get to know their new manager better over the coming weeks and months but this was not a good start.
Hearts’ formation was as much a statement of Stendel’s intent as the line-up itself. The old 4-4-2 shape has gone out of vogue in the modern game but, by sending out two strikers, the former Barnsley boss made it clear he wanted to start on the front foot.
Even with that extra spot in attack and Steven Naismith out injured, Uche Ikpeazu couldn’t make the XI, with Steven MacLean’s experience blending with youngster Aidan Keena.
A glance at the Premiership table would have made the German instantly aware that St Johnstone have their weaknesses but instead he was given a thorough insight into Hearts’ own frailties.
The lesson started early in the match when Saints left-back Callum Booth played a hopeful ball down the left channel that became a great pass thanks to the clever, bending run of Michael O’Halloran off the opposite touchline that kept him onside.
Another of Stendel’s big calls had seen Bobby Zlamal return in goal for Joel Pereira but the Czech was just a little too eager to come off his line and O’Halloran waltzed round him.
From there, it should have been a simple finish but the winger wanted an extra reassuring touch that allowed Aaron Hickey to bound back and clear off the line. Zlamal made amends to deny Matty Kennedy on the rebound.
The conditions weren’t helping either set of players, so perhaps Sean Clare and O’Halloran deserve the benefit of the doubt for sclaffing shots at either end as the ball dropped invitingly.
Murray Davidson, St Johnstone’s perennially combative midfielder, will argue he took a lot more of the ball than Clare as he slid into an unorthodox midfield challenge that drew a booking from referee Alan Newlands.
All eyes were supposed to be on Stendel but it was Wright whose personality commandeered trackside in the early stages. Loud and animated, at one point during an especially frantic exchange it seemed like he might even leap over the touchline and into a tackle.
Stendel was soon joining in, urging home captain Christophe Berra to carry the fight forward and then applauding a run and shot from Jamie Walker.
At half-time he made a change, abandoning the 4-4-2, to bring on on-loan attacking midfielder Ryotaro Meshino for Keena.
Virtually the youngster’s first act was to fire off a decent 25-yard shot that swerved wide but it was Saints who grew stronger.
Kennedy (twice) and Davidson dispatched efforts wide of target before Stendel called for Ikpeazu to restore some extra muscle at the top end of the pitch.
A loose ball from Meshino let Saints in. Davidson intercepted, clipped the ball forward and O’Halloran met the pass before picking out substitute Callum Hendry in the middle.
Zlamal’s point-blank save to turn the ball over was excellent and any debate over Hendry’s finishing was rendered moot from the corner.
Kennedy slung the ball over, Hendry jumped highest and planted a header into the net.
Hearts didn’t even come close to an equaliser. Instead, the slackness displayed by Meshino spread like contagion, with Oli Bozanic and even the normally assured Glenn Whelan giving the ball away under minimal pressure.
Whelan’s mistake led to a chance from which Saints ought to have doubled their advantage, substitute David Wotherspoon running on and whipping a shot narrowly wide.
‘The manager has only had four days, so he can only do so much,’ reflected Berra afterwards.
‘He’s shown enthusiasm and character, so there will be a lot more to come.
‘There will be changes in January. He’ll fancy his type of players. He might fancy some of us, others he might not and if it benefits the club, that’s all the matters.
‘The players are on trial in every game. No one’s place is cemented, no matter who you are.
‘We’re in a relegation battle, of course we are. The table doesn’t lie. We’re not naïve or stupid enough to think otherwise.’