Hearts Struggle with Defensive Imbalance Despite Attack Thrill

Hearts dazzled going forward and wobbled at the back. Again.

It is the recurring riddle for new head coach Vrancken, who has been blunt about the need to stitch together a side that can thrill in attack without fraying defensively. On this occasion, though, the imbalance came with a sizeable caveat – this was a team running on fumes.

They had emptied the tank in midweek, surviving a gargantuan test to knock out Rapid Vienna with 10 men. The emotional high, the physical toll, all of it lingered. Yet when the whistle blew here, Hearts came flying out.

They tore into St Johnstone in the first half. Eleven efforts, seven on target, and a tempo that crackled. In midfield, Mendy ran the show, crisp and composed, barely putting a foot wrong and coming within inches of his first Hearts goal.

His display mattered even more given the cloud hanging over Tom Renaud. The Frenchman’s nasty-looking midweek injury could sideline him for a while, and Hearts needed someone to grab hold of the centre of the pitch. Mendy did exactly that.

At the other end, the old worries resurfaced. Hearts still looked fragile. St Johnstone struck early, another cheap goal conceded, another moment where the back line switched off and paid for it. The pattern is becoming too familiar.

As the game wore on, the adrenaline bled away. Simple passes started to go astray. Decisions that felt automatic in the first half suddenly became laboured. Mental fatigue joined the physical, and by the closing stages Hearts were no longer hunting a third or a fourth – they were clinging on.

But they clung on. Just. And that matters. The result, if not the manner, will stiffen them before the Edinburgh derby under the lights at Easter Road on Thursday.

For St Johnstone, the story is different but no less intriguing. Given how cheaply they allowed goals, lesser sides would have folded early. Dundee United did when they came to Gorgie a few weeks back, collapsing to a 4-0 defeat. This Saints team refused to follow that script.

Valakari’s players fought their way back into the contest. They wrestled momentum away from the hosts and carved out several big chances to level. The heartbeat of that resurgence lay in midfield, where former Hearts man Jason Holt and Sam Stanton were outstanding, biting into tackles and driving their team forward.

Ahead of them, Jamie Gullan worked relentlessly, while substitutes Taylor Steven and Kai Fotheringham injected fresh energy and menace. The platform was there. The intent was there.

What was missing was composure. The defining moment came when Josh Fowler rounded Reus in the second half and froze. The finish never came. The chance evaporated. It summed up Saints’ afternoon in one painful snapshot.

Yet the signs are hard to ignore. Valakari’s side, like Hearts, carry genuine threat in the final third. The raw materials are there. If they can tighten up at the back, if they can add a ruthless edge to the promise, how different might their season look?