Hearts captain Eggert urges new defence to tighten up - and fast
Saturday's visit to Inverness is followed by Motherwell and Rangers at home, Aberdeen away and then St Mirren and Kilmarnock at home, offering hope for a string of positive results which would see Hearts climb the SPL table.
Jonsson acknowledged that losing Zaliukas through a contract dispute and Wallace to injury was significant but claimed squad depth is good enough to cope.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad"It's always going to take time if you are missing two players like them. The rest of us need to gel and get to know each other," he said.
"Playing together for the first time away at Celtic Park was a tough task, and obviously losing three goals wasn't acceptable. We need to make sure the people who come in for those two are good enough to do the job.
"We have a bit of depth in the squad so it's a chance for the players who come in. They need to take their chance and make the most of it because we have some important games coming up and we want to improve on the result against Celtic."
Meanwhile, Hearts have decided against signing the out-of-contract former Cardiff City left-back Tony Capaldi to compensate for Wallace's absence.
Capaldi trained at Riccarton last week and held contract talks with Hearts officials but those have not been followed up with a concrete offer and the player is now resigned to looking elsewhere.
Hearts star Eggert Jonsson is backing the Teenage Cancer Trust's 1.6 million East of Scotland Appeal. The Icelandic ace was joined at Tynecastle by Trust supporters Kirsty Harrison, Ross Newlands, Anna Thomson and Rachel Blair. For more information or to donate to the appeal, visit: www.teenagecancertrust.org/eastofscotlandappeal