Csaba wears Hearts on his sleeve but I'm happy to see him go mental.

Byline: WERNER BURGER

HE'S the method behind Csaba Laszlo's madness. The ice to his fire.

Now for the first time in a year, Werner Burger has stepped out from Csaba's shadow to reveal the man behind the manager.

The 51-year-old German has shunned the limelight since Hearts drafted him in as their No.2 last August, invaluable but invisible.

And in his first interview in Scotland, he has finally opened up on the secret behind the success that won his boss the Manager of the Year plaudits and his club the rewards of Europa League football.

It's a classic case of opposites attract. He's the yin to Laszlo's yang, two complete opposites who combine to be greater than the sum of their parts.

And the reserved Burger insists that's why he'll never try to put a lid on the boiling-point explosions of his mate.

Balance At their training hideaway outside Hannover this week, Burger told MailSport: "Csaba asked me to come a year ago and I didn't think twice.

"Yes, I knew the history of the club because I also keep in touch with Valdas Ivanauskas but there was no fear of coming.

"I love my football and if you love your work there's no problem working with Csaba. I've built a relationship with him over seven years since we first met in Cologne when we were doing our pro licence together.

"I remember our first day on the pitch. I was out there doing a session and he walked up to me during it and said: 'Why are you not playing football here?' "That was his first words to me, to stand in front of me and question me. He was the same even back then, that's his nature.

"Me? I'm the kind of guy who likes to stay in the back, not so much in the front unless I have to be as part of my job.

"It's like an orchestra - sometimes you have to know when to play and when to stop. That's where our balance comes from.

"After that day he would pick me up every day in the car and we'd go to the course together.

"And since then even when I was coaching in Switzerland or he was in Hungary with the national team, every week we'd phone and talk about the game. Yes, his passions run high. I know what he's like but I also know what it needs to for us to work together.

"He is emotional but I like that because it lets me stay at the back and maybe see things he can't see.

Concept "But I will never pull him back in because I don't need to.

"Last season we had around 45 games and there was only that one time at Tynecastle when he ran on the field. I didn't worry because that's the kind of guy he is."

But what kind of guy is he? A small-time playing career that kicked off with amateur side FC Konstanz in the south of Germany, the closest Burger came to the big time was an offer from Fortuna Cologne that he knocked back.

A club coaching career spent mainly in the second and third tiers of Swiss football followed.

But much of what made him what he is now was learned after he joined the DFB - the German football federation.

Burger was in the right place at the right time as the Germans set about revolutionising their youth structure in the late 90s.

And the coach reckons that experience has stood him in great stead to help Hearts' kids find their way to the top as well.

He said: "The German U-21s won the Euro Championships two weeks ago against England but it was actually the first time they had done so in more than 20 years.

"In the past our young players were often the best in the world.

"But Dietrich Weise was the last coach to win the U-20 World Cup and that was in Australia in 1982.

"I started to work for the DFB in 1999 as Weise began building a new concept for our young players and this was to prove the basis for our success. Maybe the names weren't so big at the time, those were the years we didn't win things but you see what has happened now.

"What I found then was that to work with young players you must understand their problems.

Tactical "You need to know what goes on in their minds much more than with experienced players.

"We've brought along new guys such as Ryan McGowan, Craig Thomson to Germany this week but now we must help them.

"They're different from my generation. Back then the coaches didn't really talk to you. Today we learn far more by talking especially with the tactical work we do."

But he's also aware tactics mean nothing if you don't have the personnel to execute them.

And the Jambos' first two pre-season outings in midweek - a 2-1 win over fourth-tier German amateurs Goslar 08 and a 1-0 defeat to Poles Slask Wroclaw - let him see where they stood.

Burger sighed: "We've lost some key players from last season.

"We have some new defenders and we've seen from the two games that in the striker position we must be able to score from our chances. Last season we had Christophe Berra, Robbie Neilson and Christos Karipidis. A high standard of defender.

"We knew if we didn't lose goals, we'd be strong enough. Now we've changed and we need to find a new balance.

"In these early games the teams didn't create too many chances but we still gave goals away.

"The German team was only a fourth division team but even they punished us immediately for our mistakes, as did the Polish side.

"But we'll come together, everyone will find their place and in five weeks we'll be fine."

CSABA LASZLO reckons he has the perfect back-up in Werner Burger - because the No.2 won't kiss the boss's backside.

The Hearts assistant has finally been unmasked this week after a season in the background and he's as far removed from his gaffer as it's possible to be - a stoic, methodical German who ticks every box in the cliche.

But Laszlo insisted: "You know you have the negative and positive poles? That is us.

"If I have someone similar to me, that's not good because he can't help me. I can't improve if I have an idea and I turn to him and all he sees is the same idea.

"Werner has his own ideas, he sees things differently.

"You need the best people around you and that doesn't mean just guys who say 'yes, yes, yes' to everything you say. That makes you a loser in the end.

Mix "Werner is a very German guy, if you know what I mean, and I am not.

"He'll say to me sometimes 'I can't understand why you are smiling' and I'll say 'I can also cry - but it won't help me!' "I try to mix a bit of his German with a bit of my Hungarian. He needs to be more creative and easy sometimes instead of so focused, so straight.

"When you mix these two mentalities, it's a great combination."

While Laszlo believes the Hearts coaching team contains the right mix he admits his side are missing a crucial ingredient after seeing them suffer their second straight tour defeat on Friday night.

The Jambos barely had an attempt at goal as they lost 2-0 to German Second Division outfit St Pauli in Hamburg.

And Laszlo sighed: "We were average overall and poor up front - we lost the ball a lot.

"David Witteveen tried to play what we need - a strong striker. But at the moment we're still trying to build a team."