Derek McInnes hailed Landry Kabore as “the real deal” after the Burkina Faso striker bagged a double in Hearts’ 4-0 win over Dundee on Saturday.
McInnes reckons Jambos fans have a new hero after Kabore netted twice, in between strikes by Lawrence Shankland and Tomas Magnusson as the Tynecastle club stretched their lead at the top of the William Hill Premiership to nine points over Celtic.
Shankland fired Hearts ahead in the 30th minute, taking a pass from Harry Milne before drilling into the bottom right corner, and Milne’s delivery from a corner led to Kabore smashing in his first Hearts goal for a 2-0 interval lead.
Kabore struck again on 56 minutes, steering the ball home after Blair Spittal had hit the crossbar, and substitute Magnusson wrapped up the win with nine minutes remaining.
McInnes was left purring, having watched Kabore net a hat-trick in a 3-1 Burkina Faso win over Ethiopia last month.
He said: “We’ve got another real goal-scorer on our books here, you can see that. I thought Kabore arrived, he let people know what he’s all about.
“Blair Spittal is unlucky not to score, it was a brilliant save by Jon McCracken, and Kabore finishes it so smoothly, it was as if he does this every day. It was nice and calm, but you could see how much it meant to him.
“The starting point for him is his aggression. He can’t go out and just show that he’s a good player. What we need him for in Scottish football is to make sure he has that focal point and that physicality, and then show your skills off the back of that.
“He’s the first Hearts player to score an international hat-trick, I watched his goals back and thought ‘thank God he’s mine, he looks the real deal’, and sometimes you just need to see him in that game situation.
“It’s good to know that we’ve got another goal-scorer, because all the front lads have scored now, and we’re getting some good numbers from all of them. The more options we have, different types of strikers, the better for us.”
McInnes added: “I just look forward to the Dundee United game now before the next international break. We knew after St Mirren we had two home games against the two Dundee teams, and my biggest concern about today was if we had enough energy. The quality of the goals helped.
“I think the supporters can reflect and enjoy the period that we’re in at the minute, but everybody’s thinking ‘what’s next’ and can we get a wee bit more from it. It’s only November, but it’s nice nonetheless to be top of the league.”
Dundee boss Steven Pressley says his players will be easy to lift, having followed up a 4-0 defeat at Aberdeen with an historic 2-0 win over Celtic, and hopes to do the same when Rangers visit Dens Park on Sunday.
“We responded in the best possible manner by winning against Celtic at Dens,” said the former Hearts and Rangers defender. “We’ve got to demonstrate that same mentality, response and resilience, and there’s no reason why we can’t respond in the best possible way next Sunday.”
