Steven Naismith is aware of the importance of Heart of Midlothian's Scottish Premiership clash against St Mirren this afternoon.

Hearts are winless in eight to start the season and the pressure at Tynecastle Park has increased as the games go by without a win.

As well as speaking about the Tony Bloom news and data in football in general, Naismith discussed the pressure, the team's identity, his responsibility and Finlay Pollock's loan move to Raith Rovers.

Read everything he said when he spoke to the press below...

The proposed link-up with Tony Bloom's analytical company? Where are you and where are the club with that?

To be honest, most things at the club I'm kept up to date with. I'm not in a position to speak on it. On data in general, I think it's a thing that's been happening in football for the last 10-15 years. It's now at a point where it's not just general output from players, it's in every area of the clubs. So I think personally it's something that's only going to get bigger in football. There are areas of the game that it's very early on in, but there are other areas where it can be a massive benefit. We use as much at the moment as we can and what we've got the resources for. But I think going forward in every area of every club it's going to be a big part of it. But in terms of any deal, I'm not really in a position to speak any more about it.

Do you have any indication at all as to when you will be able to speak and when this may well happen?

No, that type of thing, not. As I said, I've got more important things to be thinking about and that's going to result tomorrow. The rest will be what it will be, when it will be, it will come out and things will be said at the right time by the people at the club that should be having their conversations.

There are a lot of changes at the club behind the scenes in terms of Joe Savage leaving and Graeme Jones coming in as well. Is this possibly just part of all of that change?

I think change happens at football clubs where it's players, coaches, managers, and backroom staff. The one thing about Hearts, and I think I'm saying this from the moment I came here as a player, they're looking to improve and progress as much as they have. Probably in the time I've been here, the progression has been at a much quicker rate than probably the infrastructure is ready for and behind the scenes is ready for. We're making rapid steps. The club always look to make improvements, even with Graham coming in. The role will be slightly different to what Joe's was. That's to try and make us more efficient and be on top of different things that we think need improvement more now than when Joe came in.

In terms of data, how much do you use that on a daily basis?

In terms of data, we use it with the players' fitness, we use it with the style of play, we use it with the opposition analysis, we use it with recruitment. We use it at the levels that we've got at our disposal at the moment.  We're not at the top end of where it is generally in football. But like I said, I think like everything in football, as it's more mainstream and the resources are becoming easier to access, then I'll get touched on in all of these areas. We try as much as we can with the different data packages that we've got at the moment, but there's definitely a lot of room for improvement with the better resources that you get.

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You said you've got other things to focus on, I assume that's winning football matches?

Definitely. It's been a tough start. There have been some poor moments, I think there have been good moments even last week. I think anything that we can take from Celtic's result during the week is our performance defensively was alright against them compared to what happened during the week. So there's been areas that have been decent, there's bigger areas. As you get success last season, you need to find other ways to put other teams under pressure. We've not done that well enough this season, for me that's been the biggest thing. We've been punished for every mistake that we've made. I don't think that will continue, I think we'll get a bit of luck in some respects, but we need to be creating more chances and we need to take more chances. That's ultimately the short-term fix to giving us better chances in games.

You know as a manager, even though you've only been in the job 15-16 months, the buck stops with you though, doesn't it? How do you cope with that? 

Definitely, when I'm saying we need to be better at this and that, we've not been good enough and that's ultimately my mistake and my problem and I'm the one that's at fault for that. But as I've said continuously this season, we work tirelessly. We work tirelessly on the pitch, the players are really responsive to it, and they're trying. I think we'll get a break and the results will pick up. I think we can lean on parts of last season at the early stages of the season. I think some of our new players are getting more comfortable, which eases things for us as well. I've got full confidence in the squad and I've got a real belief that we can get a result tomorrow.

A lot of the critics have said that there is no identity about Hearts. There's no real way that the fans or other critics can look at Hearts and say that's a Hearts team. How do you respond to that and what is Hearts identity?

I think short term, in last season, our identity has been that we've won games. We've won games consistently. That got us a good run, it got us a good position in the league and fundamentally that needs to be the first thing that people identify to you. That you're hard to beat and you win games, you find a way to win. Beyond that, we're probably a team that has more possession than the opposition. I don't think our attacking play and style, I can accept that there has been a clear way of doing it. As I've just said before, that's an area we need to improve on. There are wee areas that I do think over time you will progress and you'll see a consistency that will come. We've not found that this season but ultimately we need to win games to get over that first hurdle and bring that confidence back that players play the best football. 

How do you prevent a dressing room with a large squad here from fragmenting when they're under the pressure of poor results?

I think like last season, the clear message is what we're doing. We stick to what we're doing and that gets us results. That got us that last season. I think there is a calmness around us, there's an understanding that wone, we need to get results. There's a frustration for the fans and there's a demand. Ultimately we need to get results. You'll go into a game on a Saturday and you'll either be favourites or you're the underdog. In the times that we're favourites we need to take control of those games and ultimately get the result. But as I said, we work hard. The squad are really receptive. I've been at clubs where in the tough times the injury list is quite high and the players that are unavailable are very high. I'm sure we've got one injury, if that, at the moment. That tells me a lot, that one one this squad are up for the fight of getting in the team and two, getting the team to play well to win games. 

Lawrence Shankland in training ahead of Hearts' trip to St Mirren.Lawrence Shankland in training ahead of Hearts' trip to St Mirren. (Image: SNS Group)

You've been talking about how they have to understand the pressure that comes with playing by Hearts. The pressure is really apparent. Do you try and shield them from the large amount of criticism that's coming their way? Or do you want them to feel that? Do you want them to understand what the expectation is?

I think in this day and age. You can't shield them. The phenomenon of social media is in your face. I don't think you should shield them from it. It's there. You're either going to accept it and have a good Hearts career or you're not. It's as simple as that. It's probably more about talking about how do you deal with it in the single moments. How do you deal with the first ten minutes of every game? How do you deal with it with 20 minutes to go when it's nothing each? Or you need to win the game and you're behind? It's these wee things you try and educate the players on. I don't think. In the games we've been on the pitch and we've not shown fight. We've not shown desire. Going forward we've not put teams under enough pressure and asked them to defend enough. As I said we've been punished for every mistake. Dundee United, a deflection goes in. We have a deflection shot in the first half that goes wide. These wee moments aren't going for us at the moment.

How does criticism and pressure differ now that you're a head coach compared to say losing a couple of games with Scotland and Rangers? 

It’s different as a coach, you feel the person personally. As you said earlier the buck stops with me. I'm the one that drives everything here. From the standards, from the training sessions to what we're doing, how we're going to compete against a team. You take it more personally but I think my character has shown that as a player I did individually do that. But there are places to hide as a player. You're going out there and there are 10 other team mates that are there. There are subs that are going to come on. You'll play your part. But when you're leading it you've got to come up with the answers.

A new deal and a loan move for Finlay Pollock. How pleasing is that?

If I'm honest it was a really tough decision for me personally. I think he's on the cusp of being somebody that should be part of our squad. It was probably the amount of time out that he's had that's been the key thing to say let's go to January to play games. He's missed a lot of football. His mentality is strong. His athleticism and that side of it is really good and he's got good ability. We just can't give him the assurance that he's going to play enough minutes from now to January. So I think it suits us, it suits Raith Rovers. Us giving him a new contract shows the faith we've got in him. It's definitely one of the ones that we'll look at in January to potentially bring back. 

You were just talking about the struggles with attacking-wise and how well he's doing in the B team, was there any thinking that he could come in and be a game changer? 

Definitely. And I think he's been in a few squads. He's been close. But I think for his development and what we could get back, he may get an opportunity here, he may then have to wait a wee bit longer to get another opportunity if it didn't go too well. And for a young player, that's tough to deal with, all that. So I've taken a calculated risk that I think it's better that he plays minutes. And then January, he comes back with that in mind, that he'll be part of the squad most weeks, with a view to getting his minutes right up to playing and producing for us. 

Aside from Calem Nieuwenhof what's the injury latest?

Frankie Kent took a knock on his ankle, so we're nursing that to see if he's going to be available or not. But he's the only one.