Hearts captain Christophe Berra: We deserve all the criticism that comes our way

Hearts captain Christophe Berra admits his team have underachieved for three years and must accept fans’ vitriol as a result. Supporters turned on manager Craig Levein and some players during Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Hamilton at Tynecastle Park, which leaves Hearts joint-bottom of the Premiership.

Hearts' Christophe Berra celebrates his goal with Sean Clare

The Edinburgh club finished fifth in the league in 2017 and then sixth in both 2018 and 2019. Berra acknowledged today that his team haven’t reached their potential despite last season’s Scottish Cup final appearance.

The Hearts hierarchy have aspirations of qualifying for Europe but find themselves languishing after four league games. On Saturday, they were ahead twice through Sean Clare and Berra but conceded two cheap equalisers as George Oakley’s double earned Hamilton a thoroughly-merited point.

Hearts have now failed to beat both Ross County and Hamilton at home already this season and many fans have lost patience. The final moments of Saturday’s encounter witnessed chants of “Levein must go” and “Craig Levein, we want you to go” from sections of the 15,347 crowd.

“There are a lot of young boys and it will be a harsh learning curve because they’ve not played for a club as demanding, where expectations are as high. It’s not just here, it happens at other clubs,” said Berra. “Don’t tell me there’s no demands at other clubs, too. It’s the same.

“At the moment, with the squad we have, we should be doing better. We have been underachieving. We got to a final and a semi-final last season but we have been underachieving for the last two or three seasons. We’ve improved the squad on paper but, at the moment, I just don’t know what it is. We’re not performing, simple as that. We deserve all the criticism we have had that comes our way and we just have to take it on the chin.”