Hearts' mental fragility a cause for concern

[BBC] Wouter Vrancken must be wondering when a nightmare stops being a nightmare and becomes reality following a tough first 40 days in charge of Hearts. I absolutely back Vrancken to get things right but he needs patience and support - two things that can disappear quickly in Scottish football, especially for managers who come from abroad and have to work that bit harder to get fans onside. The late collapse at Pittodrie was largely down to the players' fatigue. Whether that was physical, mental, or both, it was sore to take, especially in the opening game of the season. I did fear we came into the season underprepared and Vrancken has hinted he wasn't happy with the club's pre-season plans that were arranged prior to his arrival. Unfortunately that is coming back to haunt us. We have lost a lot of leadership amid the summer upheaval and that was evident in the last 15 minutes at Pittodrie. Had this been last season, we'd have been able to turn to guys like Beni Baningime or Frankie Kent to come off the bench, shore things up and help us grind out the result. But there seems to be a mental fragility in this team - as demonstrated in nine minutes in Graz when we conceded three goals - and Vrancken needs to address it in the transfer window. Our new head coach isn't faultless, however, as I do find it worrying we went to Aberdeen with a bench comprising one centre-half, one central midfielder, three wingers, two number 10s and two strikers. It's not that I want Vrancken to park the bus, but we saw with Daniel Stendel that you cannot simply look to attack for 90 minutes in the Scottish Premiership and not have a plan to stifle the opposition. We need to prioritise getting defenders in over signing a striker to take up the vacant number nine jersey, as we simply need to stop conceding goals. I'd love it if we could get defensive stability for Thursday's tie in Lisbon against European giants Benfica. Ordinarily, it's a fixture that would get the fans excited, but it's now a case of hoping we keep the likely defeat respectable and avoid injuries before a must-win clash against Dundee United on Sunday. If we can get a good performance and a kind result in Portugal, that should breathe some confidence back into Gorgie, where the wind has been knocked out of our sails ever since 16 May at Celtic Park.