Craig Levein slams ‘rubbish’ David Vanecek after hooking below-par striker in dismal 2-1 defeat against Dundee

BY ALAN TEMPLE – @CCP_Sport

CRAIG LEVEIN has branded David Vanecek’s display against Dundee as ‘rubbish’ after substituting the striker just 30 minutes into Hearts’ 2-1 defeat at Tynecastle.

Making just his second appearance for the capital club since arriving from FK Teplice earlier this month, Vanecek was dominated in the air, gave the ball away for Genseric Kusungu’s opening goal and picked up a foolish booking.

Levein delivered a withering assessment of the showing, insisting he was left with no choice but to replace the striker with Steven MacLean.

And he has warned Vanecek, who is visibly lacking match fitness, that he needs to knuckle down to make his mark in Gorgie.

He said: “I thought he was rubbish. He wasn’t playing well, wasn’t holding ball up and then got himself booked.

“I thought the last thing we needed was for David to get involved in another challenge and get himself sent off.

“He’ll need to do a hell of a lot of work to get himself to the fitness levels he needs.

“Okay, this has been two games in quick succession after five weeks without a game, but he still needs to be better.”

Hearts did level through prior to half-time courtesy of Olly Lee’s deflected free-kick, however Andrew Nelson’s second-half strike secured a deserved three points to lift Dundee off the foot of the table.

Levein continued: “We started the game terribly. Normally Tynecastle is a hard place to come, we start at good tempo and get the crowd up.

“But on Wednesday we gave up ten opportunities to pass the ball forward in the first ten minutes. We went sideways, went back, and that gave Dundee hope. We were terrible.

“When we did go forward, we gave it away, fell over the ball and didn’t compete well enough.”