The Heart And Soul Of Edinburgh : Heart Of Midlothian FC !

[kevinmackenzie14]

Kevin MacKenzie Named New Hearts Manager

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Kevin MacKenzie has today been announced as the new manager of Scottish Premier League side Heart Of Midlothian Football Club with John McGlynn stepping down with immediate effect. MacKenzie who is 32 in August previously spent 7 years as a hearts player before a knee injury forced him to end his footballing career at just 25, MacKenzie having been a Hearts fan since he was just a young boy joined boyhood club Hearts when he was only 14 and then progressed through the youth system and played over 300 games for Hearts after making his debut at only 17 years old. He was unfortunate to never have been capped by Scotland at senior level but did make a handful caps at all youth levels for his country. Since retiring nearly 7 years ago MacKenzie has worked on getting all his coaching badges and has been involved with Hearts at youth levels but now has the opportunity to manage the club he loves.

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With Hearts' tight financial situation i will have to look into cutting the wage bill so unfortunately we will have to lose a few players, i will not be making any decisions without looking at the squad in depth. This season is all about stabilizing the club financially and i hope the fans bare with me.

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Squad analysis:

I have a decent squad mixed with good young players that have came through the academy and experienced players, i also have danny wilson & michael ngoo on loan from liverpool. Even though the squad is pretty thin i prefer to work this way and this means i can let some under 19's into my squad if im struggling with players been missing.

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Key Players:
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Goals for this season are to finish in the top 2 if not challenge for the title, get to at least the semi finals of both the League & Scottish Cup and hope for the best in Europa league qualifying.

 

[MaximumPower]

Finally a Hearts story! Tried managing them myself. Found it near impossible. Good luck.

 

[kevinmackenzie14]

Pre-Season:

Hearts 7-0 Hearts Reserves -Sutton (2), Holt (2), Novikovas (2), Ngoo
Hearts 2-1 Liverpool -Holt, Skrtel OG, Johnson
Hearts 1-2 Wigan - Carrick, Helenius, Di Santo
Hearts 0-5 Tottenham - Defoe, Bale (3) Toivonen
Hearts 3-1 Hearts U19's - McGowan, Stevenson, Sutton, Carrick
Hearts 0-3 Swansea - Moore, Michu, Ki
Hearts 1-3 Bolton - Paterson, Eagles (2), Davies
Hearts 1-0 Aston Villa - Mullen

Friendlies were ok, couple good performances and results against liverpool & Villa especially but very poor against spurs & bolton. All in all i think it has set me up pretty well for my first game of the season.


Transfers Out:

Marius Zaliukas - The Club Captain, had to sell him as he was on 11k p/w which was almost a quarter of my budget but i did make a tidy £1.4m.

Mehdi Taouil - although a decent player, i have good young players that play in his position and his 3k p/w wage will be saved.

Darren Barr - similar to Taouil, also have enough cover and his 3.5k p/w wage is well saved.

Transfer Ins:

Marc McAusland - St Mirren - 100k - He is a quality young centre back and for 100k with less than 1k p/w wages he is a steal.

Jeal Joel-Perrier Doumbe - Free Transfer - need back up for right back with Hamill injured long term. on a very small wage aswell with bigger appearance bonus'.

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Team & Tactics:

I will be playing a 4-2-3-1 fluid controlling game, alot of under 21's in my squad but i feel most of them are good enough to play when needed. I will be playing this style almost every game if i have the right players to fit the formation.

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I Will be updating at the end of every month with, screenshots of the table, player of the month, young player of the month and goal of the month, also ill be adding a few comments on each game and performances. any opionions will be appreciated.

 

[kevinmackenzie14]

August:

6.8.2012
Hearts 1-0 St Johnstone - Wilson - Controlled the game from the off and scored after 5 minutes, should have had the game sown up by half time. Great team performance overall.
Danny Wilson MOTM - Terrific at the back and a great goal.

12.8.2012
Hibernian 1-3 Hearts - McPake, Sutton (2), Ngoo - Scrappy game but delighted to beat out rivals in their own backyard. Had a few shaky moments in defense and MacDonald was at fault for their goal.
John Sutton MOTM - Had a great game but blew his chances for a hat-trick by missing a sitter.

18.8.2012
Hearts 1-1 Inverness CT - Walker, Pepper - Controlled the whole game, limited them to little amount of shots but conceded late on, created so much but just couldn't finish.
Garry Warren MOTM.

23.8.2012
Hearts 1-1 Athletic Bilbao - Sutton, Iturraspe - Great result, backs against the wall for most of the game but was solid at the back, changed to a 4411 in this game which seemed to work.
Fernando Llorente MOTM.

26.8.2012
Aberdeen 2-0 Hearts - Vernon (P), Fallon - Poor performance, created next to nothing all game. Alot of tired legs after the midweek game but credit to aberdeen who did play well.
Rory Fallon MOTM.

30.8.2012
Athletic Bilbao 5-0 Hearts - Iturraspe, Llorente, Grupegi, San Jose (P), Susaeta - Horrible Game, Defense were no where to be seen, Bilbao controlled the game from the off. A game to forget and get back to league duties.
Iturraspe MOTM.

Aug 8th - 13 Hearts Players Called Up For International Duty - 4 Senior Team Call Ups.

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McHattie,Walker,Hamilton & Paterson make Scotland U21s appearance V Portugal - Paterson scores in 3-1 loss.
Tapping, Carrick & Mullen make Scotland U19s appearance V France in 2-0 loss.
Prychnenko scores in Ukraine U21s 2-1 loss to Japan.
Wilson & Webster Both make Scotland appearance in 3-2 loss to Estonia.

Aug 10th - Hearts Draw Athletic Bilbao In Europa League Play Off.

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Aug 30th - Hearts Draw Partick Thistle At home in the League Cup 3rd Round.

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Aug 31st- 10 Hearts players called up for international duty- 2 senior team call ups.

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[kevinmackenzie14]

Summary Of August:

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Delighted for Danny Wilson, He played amazing in the first 2 wins. Hopefully he can keep it up.

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Unfortunate for Ngoo not too have his goal against hibs among the top 3 goals of the month.

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Very surprised that i came 3rd in the Manager of the Month awards, but ill take it.

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After Fallons performance against us I am not surprised about this, Terrific striker.

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The table doesn't look bad for me, but i am disappointed with my draw at home against Inverness after controlling the game so much but its always nice to see our rivals at the bottom. Im obviously upset after been knocked out of the Europa League 6-1 on Agg especially after drawing 1-1 in the first leg but Bilbao are a quality side and i suppose i didn't expect much.
Danny Wilson & John Sutton's performances have been good but Jamie MacDonald's had a very poor month and i will be thinking about giving our 2nd keeper Mark Ridgers a shot in goal.

Thats me for tonight, will hopefully finnish september tomorrow if not more. feel free to leave comments and opinions.