CRAIG Levein is targeting set-pieces in the hope Hearts can end their worrying scoring drought against Rangers this weekend.
The Tynecastle outfit have not found the back of the net for five matches, since defeating Dundee 3-0 last month, and have lost four of those games.
A lack of firepower has cost the Tynecastle club a place in the Betfred Cup final and top spot in the Premiership, with Saturday’s 2-0 defeat away to St Mirren resulting in them slipping down to third in the table after three straight defeats.
Talk has quickly moved on from a possible title challenge to where Hearts’ next goal is going to come from.
The Gorgie side appear to be badly missing injured strikers Steven Naismith and Uche Ikpeazu but Levein is adamant his team cannot simply wait for their return in the coming weeks.
And, whilst he works hard on finding an attacking solution, he has urged his players to make the most of corners and free-kicks as they seek a morale boost.
He said: “Saturday was a bit like the last match where we had loads of possession but we don’t seem to have that cutting edge, which is frustrating.
“I think our best chance of scoring at the moment seems to be from set-pieces.
“We could have had three or four with clear headers and, again, things that were going in earlier in the season, even in those situations, aren’t going in just now.
“So, we’re all suffering a little bit just now from a wee bit of a lack of confidence in front of goal.
“What I don’t want to do is get into a situation where I just have to wait on players coming back before we can improve, because that’s not good enough.
“We need to come up with a way of scoring, other than from set-pieces, but we need to score at set-pieces as well, just to give us a chance to feel confident.
“Goals change games, as everybody says, so we need to score and we need to feel better about getting in front in a game, possibly.
“And, then, at least have a defensive job to do after that.”
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