LARRY KINGSTON believes Csaba Laszlo has succeeded in just a few weeks where other managers have failed – by uniting the Hearts squad. The Hungarian coach has been in the job for a month and saw his team record a morale-boosting 1-0 win over English Premier League new boys Hull City at the weekend.
The visit of the Tigers to Tynecastle was the Jambos' last pre-season match before they kick off their SPL campaign with a home clash against
Mark McGhee's Motherwell on Saturday.
Since Laszlo's arrival, his frank assessments of where his squa
d needs to improve and his willingness to ruffle feathers have impressed supporters while his man management skills have won over the playing staff.
Uniting a squad fractured by near constant off-field dramas over the past couple of seasons was always going to be the biggest challenge faced by the new incumbent of the Tynecastle hot seat.
However, Kingston insisted that Laszlo has repaired much of the damage done over the past couple of years in double quick time.
"The new manager here is a very good man," said the Ghana internationalist.
"He is well organised, a professional man and he has brought the team together so well. He has also raised the discipline in the team and all the players want to work hard for him. He has brought a very big change.
"At the moment, all the players have confidence in him and he has confidence in us as well. Now we are a more organised team than last season, we are playing more competitive football and even more compact football.
"There is more tactical play in our game and I think we believe in the new manager. The players are together now, we're working harder and helping each other on the pitch.
"We're giving everything and slowly the improvement is coming.
"I feel happier now. At the moment I'm more relaxed and looking forward to starting the new season. We have had a good pre-season, everything has been more organised. I think it's better than last season. The pre-season last year was okay but this summer was much better. That's a good sign.
"The manager has a European style of coaching. I've played under European coaches and African coaches and I think Csaba is predominantly European. He hasn't brought anything special from Africa, I think he has his own ideas."
Sunday's triumph over Hull gave Hearts a welcome lift going into this weekend's visit of the Steelmen, following a couple of disappointing results during their pre-season tour of Germany.
Admittedly, Hull look like a side who will struggle badly in the English top flight this season but they did, nonetheless, provide a decent final test for Laszlo's men ahead of the start of the SPL.
Despite a number of injury problems Hearts looked assured throughout the 90 minutes and fully merited the win over their opponents from east Yorkshire. And, while it was only a warm-up game, Kingston believes there are plenty of positives to be taken.
"It was a vital and important game because we have less than one week to the new season," said the midfielder.
"Everything is motivating us to start the league well. I can see that, since the training camp in Germany, we have been improving on each and every game, which is a very good sign.
"We have a lot of young players at the moment but, as I keep saying, football is not played with names. Our youngsters need the support of senior players and we are giving it to them now. On Sunday we had a very young player (Brown] playing on the left and he did quite well. It's up to the senior players in the team to give them confidence."
By his own admission, Kingston failed to produce the kind of form he is capable of last season for Hearts when a combination of injury and African Nations duty with Ghana limited the number of times he turned out for the men in maroon.
But, with a new manager at the helm and a renewed sense of optimism surrounding the club as the new season approaches, he is determined to get back to his best and help the club enjoy a successful campaign.
With no obvious goalscorer in the team – Juho Makela, Calum Elliot and Jamie Mole have all failed to find the net with any regularity in the past and it would be unfair to burden young Gary Glen with the responsibility – the likes of Kingston will be expected to chip in with a number of goals this term.
And Kingston is relishing the challenge of trying to get his name on the scoresheet with more frequency.
"My aim is to improve upon each and every game. The season is about to start and I'm going to give everything I have, then we will see what happens," he said. "My main position is midfield but I'm the type of player who can hold a lot of positions, it depends how the manager wants me to play.
|In the national team I play on the right and I'm comfortable there. Nothing changes, whether I play on the right or in the middle.
"I'm the type of person who wants to score in every game but sometimes it depends how the match goes. I will have my chances and I always want to put the ball in the back of the net. If the chance doesn't come I will do everything possible to make an assist or help in some other ways.
"All the midfielders we have can score. Driver can do it, sometimes I can do it, so can Michael Stewart on occasions. We are very comfortable with good midfield players who can create surprises for opponents.
"I'm a positive player who likes going forward a lot so hopefully through this season I can contribute a few goals."
The full article contains 997 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
