Steven Naismith insists he doesn’t fear Hearts axe and can turn things around despite horror run of defeats
STEVEN NAISMITH insists he is NOT worried about his own position despite Hearts’ horrific run.
And he claimed HE will tell the Jambos board himself if he feels he can no longer turn things around.
The men in maroon crashed to their SIXTH successive loss as they went down to Dundee United at home.
They have lost every game since Naisy and his coaching team were given new deals last month and the club are now joint bottom with Kilmarnock.
And while he concedes there needs to be a ‘drastic change’ he does not believe it should be in the dugout.
Asked if he feared the axe, he said: “No, because if that time comes, that time will come.
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“I think I've said before, the moment I feel that I don't think I can turn it around, I'll tell the club.
“It's not something that I'll be hanging on to if I do get to that point.
“As I said, there's been a decent turnover in players. They're a good group, they work well, but ultimately we need to show it on the pitch.
“We need to be a harder team to beat, we need to have a more ruthless streak.
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“We need to have a bit of a swagger to say we're going to give all we can and not fear about what might happen in the negative sense, because I feel we're doing that too much at the moment.”
Asked if he was confident he could turn things around, he added: “Yeah, I certainly am.
“I think there's a lot of work to get done and there's a long way to go, but I think we know what it takes.
“There was a period last season where we went on a poor run and the reaction to that was really good, so that does show that it's in the players.
“We're getting to the point where you need to win games. There needs to be a drastic change from where we've been.
“I think in spells and in a lot of the games, we've had good moments, but it's a small portion of the game.
“We're not managing games well, we're not understanding that at moments we just need to defend and you need to defend it.
“And in the moments that you need to make the right pass or sustain attacks, we're not doing that either.
“There's small moments in games that you can look at and say that's been positive.
“But ultimately if we keep conceding goals the way we are and not creating good chances and taking them, then it's not going to work.
“So we need to make sure that there's a quick change.”
United, in contrast, sit THIRD following their return to the Premiership.
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And boss Jim Goodwin was delighted with the way his players stood up to the Jambos.
He said: “Look, obviously a newly promoted team, you're not sure how it's going to go.
“We've had a very busy summer in the transfer market. We've signed 13 new players.
“You're always a little bit wary in terms of how long it takes some of the international players to adapt to Scottish football and how they're going to acclimatise to the different culture and what have you.
“But credit to the players, they've settled in so quickly.
“They've in this short period of time seemed to have built up a great camaraderie within the group and a great team spirit.
“That can take you a long way and I think that's the reason why we won the game today.
“I know exactly what Steven Naismith is going through because I've been there on numerous occasions as a manager myself.
“It's quite a lonely place but I do believe he's recruited really well in the summer, for one reason or another it's not quite clicking at the moment.
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“But we believed in ourselves coming here today. It'll be nice to look at the table this evening, sitting third, going into the international break.”
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