Daniel Stendel didn’t confirm whether the conditions of Joel Pereira’s loan deal mean he has to play for Hearts, but insisted it wouldn’t come into his thinking anyway.
The ‘keeper has come in for severe criticism after a number of costly errors in recent games have proved costly.
That has lead to suggestions from some quarters that the Jambos are obligated to play Pereira when fit as part of the agreement that brought him to Tynecastle from Manchester United.
And while Stendel asn't forthcoming in whether that was the case or not, he was adamant that it wouldn’t play a part in his decision making process.
Speaking ahead of the Hamilton match he said: “I understand the question but it’s not one idea in my head to decide things like that for the first eleven.
“There are a lot of questions about the goalkeeper and in the end I think we all can play better. We look after training and look after games and sometimes we’re happy and sometimes not happy with some performances but what is important is that we need trust in our player and that means in difficult situations.
“But in the end we need the best team on Saturday on the pitch.”
The assumption has been that Stendel prefers Pereira as his first choice due to his superior distribution, despite proving less than effective at making saves.
But the German said he’s like every other manager in that his priority is a ‘keeper that keeps the ball out of the net.
He added: I like when we have a goalkeeper who can play from the back and has confidence when he has a backpass.
“But every manager likes a keeper who can save the ball as well - and I am no different.”
