Steven Naismith is confident that he can lead Heart of Midlothian to an upturn in form and senses a hunger within the squad to do so.

The Hearts head coach spoke to the media ahead of the club's trip to face Celtic in the first Scottish Premiership fixture following the international break.

He discussed the challenge against the Scottish champions, what is required to succeed, Cammy Devlin's new contract, improving players, lack of goals and work during the break.

Read everything he said...

How pleased are you to be able to keep Cammy Devlin at the club?

Yeah, he's a player that's come in and we've asked him to do different things and trying to improve him, which I think we have done. He's at a good age, he's an infectious character and like a few others, you want to try and keep a core group of players that understand the club and can contribute. I think he's somebody that can definitely do that.

Cammy said under you he's improved a lot as a player and learned a lot more. Is the hope that you can do what you've done with Cammy and create better players at the club?

It's got to be a big factor for the club. I've said a few times, it's not Scottish football in general but us as a club, we're not at the top of the food chain where you just go and buy ready-made players. I think it's a big risk for clubs to spend a lot of money on players and if it doesn't work out, you're sitting with a problem. We've got to be a club that recruits players and tries to improve them and sell them on. I think our recruitment in some areas has had a focus on the potential aspect of it. What comes with that is inconsistency but we need to improve players and then sell them on at the right time. This year Alex Cochrane gets sold at probably what is the right time for everybody but he's somebody that came to the club, improved, became consistent and it's a good deal for the club, good deal for the player. That's got to be something that we can draw players in with showing that we've got a track record around that.

How hopeful are you that you can do similar against Celtic this time round?

I just hope that we can win. In the short term we need to win a game, we need to get off the mark and get ourselves moving. It's going to be the toughest game we've had all season. Celtic have started well, they've recruited and I think their players that were signed last year you can now see they're comfortable, and they've contributed. It'll be a tough game but it's one that I feel we can get a result. We did show that last year, which were similar circumstances in that nobody probably gave us a chance and we put in a good performance. We'll need that again this season, we'll need to defend like we did then and we need to have a threat. I say consistently again, the games against the top teams, you can't sit and defend for 95 minutes and hope to get a goal. We're going to need to be good in possession as well as out.

What went right last season at Celtic Park that needs to go right this time to get a result?

Like I said, first of all, we need to defend well. You need to understand that they're a team that have loads of quality in every area of the pitch and they can hurt you in a split second. They want the game to be played fast, they want to take things quickly and in the final third they look for 1v1s and they've got good runners from midfield. So that defensive side of it, you need to be strong to give yourself a platform to hopefully hurt them. I think in the games against the Old Firm in general, we have in most of the games carried a threat. We've been good enough on the ball to create chances. The game we win comes from a free kick in a corner but the play before that was really good, it was really brave. And that's what we're going to need tomorrow.

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Are you confident that you can change the direction of the way things are going at the minute?

 Definitely. You see the players every day of the week. I've had a long professional playing career and you can sense and you can tell when there's a low in confidence, when players have probably switched off and you've maybe been there too long and things like that. I sense a hungry young squad. We're at a low point at the moment and the start of the season hasn't gone as we would like. But every team has a tough period. It's how you deal with it, it's how you fight through it and things can change quickly. There's been moments when we've not been good enough. There's been small details in games that have cost us big and then I also think we've not had any bit of luck. The Dundee United goal comes from a deflection that goes in, in the first half Penrice has a deflected shot and it just goes past the post. These wee moments aren't going for us as well and when that all adds up, it costs you. That's where we're at at the moment. I still believe we've got a really strong squad that will, come the end of the season, be in a challenging position.

Can you almost look at this game as a bit of a breather away from Tynecastle and you don't have that pressure of the home support?

The home support part is an element of it but that's a consistent. Whether we're winning and we're in a good run or whether or not that demand is there, that's a general thing the players need to understand and get used to. I think the international break has come at a good time for us. International breaks are probably more valuable when you're in a bad run because you can have a bit of a reset and have a real focus on the areas you want to whereas when you're in a good run, you want the games to keep coming. Hopefully, we've used that well and over the next month we can see that we've worked in the areas that we feel have been good enough at the start of the season.

Is Baningime in contention for this weekend and how big a plus is it to get him back?

I think he was close for Dundee United. So that two weeks he's been back, you’d class him has being fully fit and available. It's the area of the pitch. I think we've missed him and Calem massively at the start of the season. They were two of our most consistent and best performers last season and them not being in the team probably hasn't helped the new players. So it’s brilliant to have Benny back, he's a good character as well as a fantastic player and as I talked about, that calmness on the ball when they're making the right chances and passes, he's one of the best at the club at it.

(Image: SNS Group)

Does the win at Celtic Park last season give the players belief that they can go there and do it?

I think in general our performances and the points we have taken off both Old Firm in the time I've been here definitely changes things. I think there was a long period where it was 16, 17 games home and away that we’ve maybe not picked up many points. That weighs on you definitely and it has a feeling of the task being tougher. We've not performed perfectly in all the games against the Old Firm. We've had some bad defeats but in the main I've been happy with that area that we have competed, we have shown that we've got a resilience and we've got the quality to win the game. It definitely helps the feeling. For the newer players here, and I hope from the characters that we've signed, they see it as an opportunity - What a performance, what a stadium, what an opportunity it is. That's the bit that you hope from the new players in the building.

Have you spoke Vargas about his lack of game time in international duty and getting to the bottom of it?

No, I think he should be grateful to get in the squad. It’s a competitive squad to get into first of all and he's also young. He's got to understand where he sits within the national set-up. Every opportunity you get to go away internationally, even if you don't play, is an opportunity to plant a seed with the manager. We've got a few in that category. James Wilson went away with the older age group, he was one of the youngest in the 19s age group and he didn't get a lot of minutes. But see it for what it is. Don't have the frustration of not playing. That's generally the conversation I have before players go away more than when they come back. I think to be at his age in and around the national team is great. For us it's frustrating that he doesn't play but Kenneth is a receptive young player that is desperate to get as high as he can. So any frustration he has got, I'm sure he'll take it onto the pitch and take advantage.

What's the injury situation? Is Kenneth fully fit?

Yeah, Kenneth has come back from training the last two days and he's fit for tomorrow. Barrie McKay has got a wee ankle injury. Liam Boyce is still out. Yotaro Oda has got a hamstring, he's feeling his hamstring a small bit. So I think he'll miss this weekend but it’s not serious.

So McKay, Boyce and Oda will miss the game?

They'll miss tomorrow, yeah.

Have you been able to put some good work in during the break?

I think for me the goals we've conceded are a mixture of individual error or bad decision making. that's led to the goal. But I don't think we've carried enough threat going forward. That's probably where we sit and what's the expectation of us going into every game. There's a demand to win given the size of the club. We need to carry more of a threat. So I think we've worked on that. As I said at the start, Celtic is a tough game. It's a game we can't get carried away to just go gung-ho because they've got players that can hurt you within a second. But we've done some work on the final third. that will hopefully help us in the coming weeks.

As an attacker in your playing days, the lack of goals must be frustrating for you. But can you also use that experience to get that across to the squad and start firing again?

Yeah, but whether a player's low in confidence, whether a player's not finishing, it's not one conversation or one training session that changes that. There's nothing in football that changes that quickly. It's having an understanding of where you're at, what can I do to take away that feeling, what can I do if you're going through and goal, can I go for more power rather than placing it or taking an extra touch. It's these wee details -  one of them will go in, which makes you feel a bit better, and then it just becomes a bit easier. It's trying to get the players to understand that even if you miss a chance, there can be an improvement from where you've been in the last three games. If you've had four chances and you've missed them, it might be better than having no chances the games before. It's the wee bits that you need to just keep working away on the pitch and also help them with their decision-making on the pitch.