Shankland is top scorer in the Premiership and no Jambos stars come close
Steven Pressley questioned the likelihood of finding a transfer replacement and said he felt Hearts had grown “over-reliant” on Lawrence Shankland.
This season, the striker has scored 26 goals in all competitions, with 18 of those goals coming in the Premiership. Kenneth Vargas has only scored four goals in the league, the fewest goals scored by any Jambos player. In an effort to ward off interest from Rangers and clubs in the south, the club has tried to tie down the 28-year-old on a new contract. However, Pressley is certain that they must take action to ensure they don’t lose the striker, since it might be challenging to find a suitable successor.
Elvis said to PLZ Soccer, “I’ve got to say (Steven Naismith) has done a really good job.” “Apart from the Old Firm, they now have the third-lowest goals against, demonstrating their excellent defensive play. They depend heavily on Shankland, and we must recognize his significance, but it’s common for teams to be that way about their goal scorers.
“However, they are most likely relying too much on him right now. He is a key player for them, one of the league’s top scorers with eighteen goals this season, but without him, I don’t believe Hearts now have a goal scorer in the top 30 in Scotland. this raises concerns.
“Then you look at Rangers; they don’t have a single player who can score goals like Shankland, but they do have a lot of players they can count on.” Hearts are making progress, but I believe they need to add additional objectives from other sources to their squad, which may involve hiring more players.”
Could Shankland make the move to a bigger club? Elvis thinks so. “Yeah I do because I’m a believer that if you’re a natural goal scorer in general you’ll score goals at all levels. I don’t have any doubts about Shankland and I also think he’s a player who’s taken a little bit longer to mature and find his way, understand what he is as a player. But he’s made great strides in recent seasons and I think he’s very much in his prime at present. I think he’d be a really good acquisition for Rangers or Celtic.
“If I was Hearts I’d be doing everything in my way to make that move very difficult because their reliance on Shankland is enormous, and to find a player to replace him that’s gonna give you that return of goals is gonna be very difficult, especially if you’re not willing to spend millions of pounds.”
