Heart of Midlothian host their first Conference League match of the season on Thursday night when Omonia Nicosia are visitors to Tynecastle Park.

Hearts and their Cypriot opponents got off to winning starts in the league phase. While Liam Fox led the Jam Tarts to success against Dinamo Minsk in Azerbaijan, Omonia defeated Icelandic side Vikingur 4-0 in Cyprus.

To provide an in-depth preview and insight into Omonia, Joel Sked caught up with Omonia fan Stel Stylianou who hosts a podcast and YouTube show dedicated to the club called No Choftes (No Nonsense). He also covers the Cypriot League, from the top flight to the grassroots.

Read or listen to everything Stel had to say below:

Could you give us a brief outline of how it's going with Omonia at the moment and what the expectations were against what the reality is?

The thing with Cypriot football is it's very reactionary. And by that, I mean, the supporters are very quick to hype up their team when they're doing well. But when they're not doing well, it's sack the manager, these players aren't good enough. We started the season pretty well.

Now, I need to take you back a little bit. It's been a roller coaster ride. We won the league title in 2021 under Henning Berg. The year after, it was a terrible season. He was sacked halfway through. Neil Lennon came in. We salvaged the season by winning the cup. We thought we could kick on, Lennon's got a very good reputation in terms of his managerial ability. He was signing players in the summer like Adam Matthews, who turned out to be a very good player for us. He brought in Brandon Barker. I think the less I say about him the better. Even Gary Hooper came in and he did all right, but it didn't work out for Lennon. Within seven games he was sacked.

We brought in a guy called Yannick Ferrera, a very unknown head coach who did very well in Belgium. He started okay, but then he lost 4-0 to our rivals, APOEL. Usually, when you lose to APOEL, the writing is on the wall, especially when you lose 4-0, it's bad. He was sacked after a 4-1 loss to Anorthosis Famagusta. To be fair to the guy, we only lost three or four games under him in about 13, or 14. So it wasn't bad.

Another manager comes in. Now we're on our third manager by now and we're talking about a year and a half for football. The new manager Sofronis Avgousti, who's now the head coach of the national team, comes in. He won us a cup as well. So we won two cups and the league title in the space of three years, which is great. But then things went pear-shaped for him.

We brought in a sporting director, a guy called Jesper Jansson, a Swedish guy who had a very good reputation at Hammarby. It just wasn't working out between the two. They were arguing. There was a lot of bickering on and off the field. The president - Stavros Papastavrou - who took over the club in 2018 was based in the United States. He wasn't around. His vice president was making the decisions. It just became a major soap opera.

I mean, there was a story that a bomb went off outside the vice president's home. No one knows who did it. Again, so much happened.

Avgousti got sacked. Kjetil Rekdal came in January or February this year. He lasted six weeks. He was sacked. Then another guy came in, Giannis Anastasiou, who's now the sporting director. He steadied the ship and got us to the cup final, which we lost 3-0 against Pafos.

This summer it was a complete overhaul. Valdas Dambrauskas came in. We made some very, very positive signings and we started the season well from a European campaign. We beat Torpedo Kutaisi, we beat Fehervar, we beat Zira, and qualified for Europe. Our league season started well as well. We then lost 1-0 to Anorthosis. That's when it kind of started, losing 1-0 out of a team that at the time were near the bottom. They're a big club, but they're near the bottom. 

We lost to Aris Limassol. Then we lost at the weekend to Paralimni and all of a sudden the knives are out on this coach. I can go on all day. A lot has happened. So, right now, there's a lot of umming and ahhing from the fans about whether this coach is good enough, but the fact of the matter is, it's the players. That's the problem.


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You mentioned recently that the players don't have the minerals to win the league title. What are the key issues and is there a lot of sympathy for Dambrauskas?

A lot of fans are on the fence and this is why it doesn't surprise me because in Cyprus, there's a scattergun approach to hiring and firing coaches. I'll give you an example. This season, APOEL are on their third head coach for this season. One club two years ago had seven coaches in one year. Last season, there were 18 head coaches sacked. The year before was 28. We're already at five. So, there isn't much patience with coaches and it's no surprise that the two clubs at the moment that are top of the league have got the coaches that have lasted the longest at the moment. One of them is on their third, sorry, fourth year, I think. One year is practically the average duration that a coach has.

Now, Dambrauskas came in with a big reputation. He was at Hajduk Split. He was at Ludogorets. They're big clubs in their regions. So, he's come to Cyprus and he started well and the style of football that we're playing was fantastic. It was give and go, playing in triangles, fullbacks getting forward, wingers tucking in, centre-forward scoring goals. It was great to watch. But recently, it's been very stale and very predictable. Now, I believe that's not just down to the coach, but down to the players because they're not listening to the instructions.

I'll give you a perfect example. Set pieces. We've had 113 corners this season and we've only scored three times from them. Two of them were from short corners, passed around. So, I don't even count that. So one goal direct from a corner. You could say perhaps we're not working on it in training. Yes. But when you have 113 corners, 15 corners in one game and you're not doing anything with it, what does that tell you?

What can Hearts expect in terms of style and system and how has that changed? Has Danmbraukas been tinkering with it or has he just kind of been playing the same or is that an issue in itself?

It's difficult to say because there are so many permutations to this and it mostly focuses on the three that we have in midfield. If he goes with, for example, Mateo Marić, Novica Eraković, and Chambo [Charalampos Charalampous] in the three, so Chambo will be a 10, they alternate positions. It's almost as if one will stay and two will go and they take it in turns. Whereas if he goes with Ioannis Kousoulos, who I think he's finished, to be honest, Kousoulos and Maric or Erakovic, it kind of makes us very unbalanced and there isn't any support for the wide players either. But then it also depends on who goes as the 10. If Chambo plays as the 10, we know that we've got a box-to-box player that can go and attack and go and defend.

Whereas if we go with Ewandro as a 10, he's great at moving into those pockets of spaces, but he can't challenge. He doesn't like to track back. He walks a lot off the ball. There isn't that urgency, so to speak. If we go with our wide players, we've got Willy Semedo who's been fantastic for us, but he's just come back from an injury. So, we don't know if he's going to play wide right.

Loizos Loizou is arguably our best right winger. He was on loan at Heerenveen last season, but he had issues off the field with the club to the point where he went on strike last year. This summer, he had a bit of a strop as well, but now he's worked his way back into the team and he's put in the effort.

Then we have a player called Omer Atzili who came from a club in Israel. Bit of a dodgy past, to say the least. He hasn't really done too much. We signed a player on loan called Saidou Alioum from Hammarby. He was great last season on loan. We brought him back this summer and he's been great for us, but he's not been playing.

There has been a little bit of tinkering in certain matches, but the back four has practically been the same all season. There's been one or two changes, mostly due to injuries or suspensions. Fabiano is the goalkeeper. He's probably been the best goalkeeper to ever play in Cyprus. When you look at his CV, having played at Porto, you know he's a class act.

It's been a little bit hit-and-miss for us this season. To be fair, there are a lot of positives, but at the same time, we're still making the same mistakes, whether it be defensively or just not being clinical enough in front of goal. I don't know which one is going to show up on Thursday.

Omonia head coach Valdas Dambrauskas. (Image: Pixsell/MB Media/Getty) Are those issues that have just developed in recent weeks, or has that been a concern?

This has been an Omonia thing for a few years now, but don't forget, we do have a core group of players that won the league still at the club back in 2021. So, you've got Fabiano, Kousoulos, Chambo, Loizou. But most of the players have been and gone since then. Don't forget, in Cyprus, it's not uncommon for clubs to bring in 10-15 players and get rid of 10-15 players every summer. So, you can't really get that consistency.

Now, with us, the problems that we always have are pretty straightforward. Ball watching from defenders, not being able to finish chances. There have been games where we've had 15-16 shots on goal, and we haven't been able to convert any of them.

You could say that's down to the strikers. Maybe it's just down to nerve. I don't know. I really can't put my finger on it. It's frustrating because we started the season so well, and now we've kind of gone down this downward spiral. But I know that once the European campaign ends, they're going to step up a gear again. So, it's just frustrating to watch. There's so much potential in this team as well.

It seems to be a mentality issue between playing in Europe to then go and play in the league, and then just flipping between the two. Would that be right?

I think so. That's been an issue with Omonia for years. You know, we got into the Champions League qualifiers. We beat the likes of Red Star Belgrade. We beat Legia Warsaw. And then when it came to the league, we went through a spell where we didn't score a goal in five games. But we still ended up winning the league, which isn't bad.

When it comes to other seasons, we've gone to the Conference League. We played Manchester United home and away and we were absolutely fantastic. But then the league form was absolutely terrible. You're thinking, 'Are you interested in winning the league, or are you more focused on European games?' Because if that's the case, I don't want you at this club because I want you to be focused on both.

Now, I understand that when it comes to a big European game, you're going to put in that extra 10-15 percent. But when you're dropping points, like we did this weekend against teams that are battling for relegation, like we did last season... we missed out on the league title by a few points. 

I'm thinking, well, if we didn't drop two points against this team, drop three points against this one, you know, it all adds Are you talking about a mentality problem? Are you talking about just a quality problem? It could be both.

When the team does click, what are the strengths, what are the things that Hearts need to look out for and be aware of?

When this team clicks, I'll be honest with you, this season was probably the best football I've seen us play in about five or six years. I'm not just talking about the goals that we scored because we put six past Zira, we put two home and away against Fehervar, great. It's the style of play where you've got attacking wingers that like to get on the ball and attack full-backs. You've got number 10 that can control the tempo. You've got two central midfielders in Maric and Erakovic who's ball playing, they're absolutely fantastic.

You've got attacking fullbacks that like to get forward, put the ball in the box. A central defender in Senou Coulibaly that is absolutely rapid. When he was at Dijon, clocked 36 kilometres an hour. We signed Mateusz Musiałowski from Liverpool, the Polish lad that did really, really well in the 20s. He hasn't played for us yet.

We've got talented players and when they click, the football is sublime. But the problem is we're on this downward trajectory at the moment and I'm really, really worried about Thursday because when we play against teams that are very quick on the ball and press high, we can't cope. We played against AEK Larnaca, Henning Berg is their head coach right now, and they pressed us and they pressed us and they pressed us for about 70 per cent of the game and we just could not cope, even though we won the game. We're fortunate to win the game.

When we come against teams that are physical, that are quick, especially in an intense press, we just can't get out of it. That could be our downfall, especially with the ball-watching. It's bad. The energy and the stamina levels from the Scottish Premiership to the Cypriot League are different. Granted, we've got a lot of internationals in our squad, but it's another level. It's another level up in the Premiership.

In terms of weaknesses, you mentioned about the inconsistency, you talked about inconsistency, is the balance in midfield something Hearts can expose, where you don't have any kind of ball-winning midfielders?

 Yeah, for sure. Now, the way that we play, and what I've noticed, especially in the derby games, we do like to sit back a little bit, but this coach is very positive in his approach.

I won't be surprised if we go with a 4-2-3-1 on Thursday but get our wingers back to support the full-backs, and our number 10 to drop deeper, and have one up top, whether it be Mariusz Stepinski or Andronikos Kakoulli.

If it's Stepinski, Hearts will be all right, because he's not very quick. He can be lethal in front of the goal. This is a guy that's scored in Serie A and Ligue 1, but we haven't seen enough from him. Whereas Kakoulli, on the other hand, is absolutely rapid. He can run, he can press, he chases lost causes. He can give any defender a problem because of his pace and his running but I don't think he's going to be fit for this game. So, it probably will be Stepinski.

Now, in terms of going back to our midfielders, yes, Erakovic and Maric aren't ball-winners. They're very good on the ball, and they're very good at releasing the ball at the right time. But at the same time, defensively, they're not great. So, that's probably where we might come unstuck, and also our full-backs.

[Right-back] Alpha Diounkou has been very good for us, but at the same time, he's still young. He's been known to make a few mistakes and dwells on the ball a bit too long. No problem, but it's down to the players around him to support him, which again, it depends on who's going to be right-wing. If it's Atzili, forget it. You're going to win this one easily. If it's Loizu, it'll be difficult to get in behind him because he likes to track back.

Left-back is Amine Khammas. He's been ever-present this season and loves to get forward. Defensively, not great, which means that the left winger, whether it be Semedo, whether it be Alioum, needs to track back to support him.

It just depends on the players. What I will say to Valdas' credit, he always picks the players that complement each other. He's not going to go with a left winger that doesn't support the left back. He's not going to pick a centre-forward that can't hold up the ball if you don't have the players around him to make the runs. So, it will be interesting to see which Omonia shows up on Thursday.

I just hope it's not going to be the Omonia at the weekend because even though we were on the front foot for most of the game, we got sucker punched and we just could not find an answer to Paralimni.

What about the players Hearts should watch out for? Who are the players that Omonia can't do without?

Well, Stevan Jovetic can't play. He wasn't registered for the European games because he signed at the end of the transfer window. I don't think Filip Helander will play because the reason Helander played at the weekend is because Nikolaos Panagiotou, who's the usual centre-back, played for Cyprus during the international break. He needed a bit of a rest.

The players that we can't play without, it's difficult to say because we've got some standout players. But if there's one player that I think really makes us tick this season, well, there's two. I'd say Veljko Simić, who has often played as a right winger but also can play as a 10. He's got a lot of running and a lot of speed, and he scored some pretty vital goals for us recently.

Also, Maric, who's the new signing we brought in from a club in Croatia. He reminds me a little bit of Michael Carrick in the way that he plays. He's got a very good range of passing, likes to get forward, and can chip in with the odd goal or two. Then there's Erakovic, his partner. If those two play, then we could have a good chance of getting something, even if it is a point. And I'll take that at this stage because we need all the luck we can get.

What is the view on Hearts and what was the expectation coming into the game and has it changed since Sunday's result?

Well, just to sidestep a little bit, the Vikingur result [in the last Conference League fixture], you see the 4-0, it wasn't a 4-0 scoreline. In the opening 20-25 minutes, they were all over us. They had one player that went off injured and he was there holding midfielder and he was making them tick. He was protecting the back line. He was making sure that our number 10 wasn't getting anywhere near the ball. That's when the game changed.

We were getting more and more opportunities, but it was the second-half substitutions from Valdas to bring on three players that had a lot of pace because the Icelandic season is nearly finished and it was 30-odd degrees in Cyprus at at the time so it drained them. Tes, we were clinical in the back end of that game, but I don't think it was a 4-0 scoreline.

In terms of Hearts, if you had the same head coach, I'd think, yeah, we've got a chance of winning, but now you've got a new head coach. You won at the weekend. Our results haven't been great. Willy Semedo has just come back from an injury. He didn't look sharp at all.

Listen, I'll be happy with a point at this stage, to be honest. If you'd asked me two, three weeks ago, if you'd asked me when the draw was made, can we win at Tynecastle? I'd say, yeah, we've got a chance, but now I'd say it's 80-20. Hearts are going to win this one.