Why Hearts’ season could get worse before it gets better

Former Hibernian, Motherwell and Rangers winger Jamie Murphy is well versed in both Scottish top-flight football and the Edinburgh dynamic.

“It’s just been a terrible start to the season for them in the league,” Murphy told the BBC’s Scottish Football podcast.

“Sometimes European games distract you a little bit. You can see the same at Kilmarnock.

“Six losses in a row is something that clubs usually look at and start thinking about maybe something changing. But Naismith is good manager, he knows the game.”

Another former Hibs favourite, Scott Allan, feels last season’s top scorer Lawrence Shankland’s dip in form is affecting Hearts.

The Scotland forward is yet to score this term having netted 31 goals last season, 21 of them in the league.

Only Kilmarnock and Ross County (2.5%) have a lower conversion rate than Hearts (3.57) in this season’s Premiership. Kilmarnock and Hibs (nine) are the only teams with fewer shots on target than Hearts’ 11.

That’s despite Hearts seeing more of the ball than most of their contemporaries, and their touches in the opposition box is third behind Celtic and Rangers. But it is not producing the openings or the goals they seek.

“I’ve seen a lot of Hearts,” Allan said. “The problem is the games where they maybe didn’t play so well last year, Shankland was producing.

“The international week probably [came] at good time. They need to stop the rot. It’s as simple as that and that starts from defence usually.”

Integrating summer attacking signings Yan Dhanda and Blair Spittal into the right formation has been difficult so far and finding the best blend will be crucial to stopping that rot.

Naismith has been accused of tinkering formation and line-ups too often at the expense of cohesion, with Hearts having made 13 changes to their starting team in the four games so far, the second most in the Premiership, and that’s without counting alterations made between League Cup and Europa League matches.

That seems to be affecting the defence as much as it is their attacking output.

Hearts have used two different goalkeepers, a back three, a back five, and a back four, and rotated the personnel across the defence.

It seems to be affecting players’ confidence, with two errors already leading directly to goals, more than any other team in the league.