Steven Naismith has say on position, free agents and Hearts style

The 1-0 loss to Dundee United at Tynecastle Park made it six defeats in a row.

Naismith was asked about his position, the team's style, fan fury, the decision to play Stephen Kingsley and right-back and more.

Read or listen to everything he said:

What was your assessment?

Not good enough. Being at home, again I thought we started positive in terms of energy but again our chances were creating are not at the level that we need to be at. I thought we got into the final third but we're trying to make too many passes. I don't think we had enough bodies in the box and we never created too many clear cut chances which is the part that will define games, especially at home when you've got the crowd with you. But the longer the game goes on, the more vulnerable you become and one moment can kill you. That seems to be happening at the moment because it's a sloppy goal that we lose. 

What do you think is going wrong in general between last season and this season?

I don't think there's one straightforward thing. I think the newer players are still adapting. Some of our players are low on confidence. I think in general we're picking too many safe passes. There's moments that we can be brave and play forward passes that are going to hurt the opposition but we don't. We allow them to reset, get back behind the ball and before you know it, the ball goes out for a throw-in for the opposition or it's back at our goalie. These are moments that are big in football. The higher level you play at, the more demanding there is for it. If you can't be at that level, you're going to pick the safe option and that's definitely what we're doing. 

How do you get the new players to adapt? Do they need a sustained period in the team?

I don't think there's too many that have been performing that you could sit there and pick an 11 and say they're the ones that deserve it. It's a good group, they train well, their attitudes in training are good. In my experience as a player, you need to see the opportunity and say I'm going to do my bit to stay in the team and make sure I'm in the team each week. In terms of adapting to a big club, that's time. Time dealing with these situations and the moments that it's tough, you need to understand it, work out what you can do better and the next time it comes around, make sure you're either contributing in attack or defence to stop linking goals.

How big a two-week break is this coming up? It hasn't been good enough?

No, 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. 

How far away is the team from the style that you want to see and that the fans want to see?

I think at the moment we need to win. No matter what we're doing, we need to win. As I said, you can tell that the confidence is low, so you're not going to get players playing free-flowing football the way they want to. So it's about being resilient, working out how do we grind ourselves out a result to start with and then progress from there. 

Do you start to worry about your own position?

No, because if that time comes, that time will come. 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, 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. 

Fans are making their feelings pretty clear. How does it make you feel?

I think it's something that comes with being at a big club. It's obviously not nice to hear, but it's part and parcel of the game. Like I said, some of the players are low on confidence, but that ain't going away. That's here unless you turn it around and you grind out results and you show the passion and the desire to defend and you show the quality and attack that we need.

Are you confident you can turn it around?

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. 

What was the thinking behind Stephen Kingsley at right-back with Gerald Taylor and Daniel Oyegoke?

He's [Gerald] played a lot of football. He was struggling to get through the game on Thursday, so I think he was an injury risk if we played him. We wanted Kingsley's experience on the pitch. We felt it was important. He'd done it against Rangers last season and he'd done it well. So that was the reason behind it. 

How is Frankie?

I've not spoken to him, so I'd imagine there'll be some damage there, but he managed to get through the game, so hopefully it's not too severe.

Will you look at the free agent market?

We'll see what happens. We'll have a look and see what we do, but we definitely need to change the mentality, the performance and the results.”