STEVEN NAISMITH has warned there will be no quick fix for Hearts as they enter a run of fixtures that will shape their season.
The Jambos slumped to a 5-0 defeat to Rangers on Sunday as Steven Gerrard's side eased to a comfortable and comprehensive win.
Austin MacPhee has just one win from his seven games as interim boss as the Tynecastle board continue their search for Craig Levein's successor.
And striker Naismith knows the coming weeks are hugely significant on and off the park as Hearts look to recover from a wretched first half of the campaign.
He said: "The clarity will come when it comes. The club has made the point pretty clear that they are going to look for the right man rather than just a shotgun reaction to try to get someone in quick.
"We have enough experience in the squad that should be able to deal with this.
"The games between now and Christmas will determine what happens this season for us as a club. As players we need to fight for the chances we get.
"But what the squad need to understand is that whatever manager is linked with this or interested is going to be watching these games.
"It’s not as if they are going to turn up on day one without an idea on the squad.
"Whether that happens this week or next the players should be on their toes already.
"I train with them every day. I honestly think they are [better than what we are showing].
"I think a lot are low in confidence. There is a lot of naivety in there
"And that needs to change. But it’s not going to change overnight.
"We need to work hard and start being stronger as a unit defensively.
"The games coming up will fundamentally decide what happens this season for us."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here