Michael Smith says Hearts players are letting the club down as he makes contract statement

Hearts defender Michael Smith has revealed that players feel they are letting the club down with a recent run of sub-standard results.

The Northern Irishman spoke candidly about the situation at Tynecastle Park and the frustration of only three wins from the last 12 matches. Fixtures don’t get any easier as Hearts travel to Fiorentina for Thursday’s Europa Conference League tie before Premiership games away to Aberdeen and home to Celtic.

Smith declared that performances of late are getting players down as they feel the responsibility on their shoulders. He missed Sunday’s league trip to Kilmarnock with a tight hamstring as the Edinburgh side recovered from 2-0 down to draw 2-2.

Hearts suffered 4-0 and 3-0 home European defeats in the last month against Istanbul Basaksehir and Fiorentina respectively, although a 2-0 away win over Latvians RFS in between offered some encouragement. As the longest serving player, Smith has waited five years to represent Hearts in Europe and is adamant they can do better. He stressed players and not coaches are to blame.

“It doesn't matter if I have been here a long time or not. We worked our socks off last year and even the year before to get to this level,” he said. “I think we all feel that we are maybe letting ourselves and the club down a little bit with some of the showings we have given. That’s down to us.

“Things have happened and we have put in poor performances but we need to regroup. We have still got a chance of progressing so we can’t just lie down and die. We go away again to Florence this week and we know what we are up against but we have to go there and give a better performance.

“The feeling we had after the win in Riga was great. The camaraderie around the place and in the changing room afterwards was brilliant. It would be great to do that again and give the fans something to shout about. We just feel like we are letting people down at the minute and that is on us, the players. We have not been good enough and we know that. It is down to us to turn it around.”

Fiorentina dominated last week’s match at Tynecastle after Kilmarnock, Basaksehir and Rangers all won there without conceding a goal. “We can't make it as easy as that for teams,” complained Smith. “Tynecastle is a notoriously hard place for teams to come but at the minute we are not making it that difficult for teams to come and play. It’s down to us to sort it out and I’m sure we will do that.”

Hearts defender Michael Smith is out of contract at the end of the season.

The Riccarton squad could be forgiven a touch of trepidation ahead of Thursday’s visit to the Stadio Artemio Franchi. If Fiorentina can win 3-0 in Gorgie, what might they do Hearts in Tuscany?

“There is no point in fearing them. We need to go and try to get some sort of result,” said Smith, defiantly. “We know what we are up against now. We will look at the footage from Thursday and see what we can do to change things. If anything, we need to show a bit more belief and a bit more heart and have confidence in ourselves.

“If we can do that then maybe we can get more from it. We had a couple of chances against them at Tynecastle. Okay, not clear-cut but it showed we can create chances. If we can keep it a bit tidier at the back then you never know what could happen. I think confidence and belief is massive for us.”

At 34, the right-back has plenty international experience to help him through this first foray into UEFA competition. An element of the unknown accompanies every game in Group A of the Conference League as Hearts look to garner more European know-how.

“It’s tough because you don't know what you are coming up against,” he said. “In the league you have played the teams and the players before. Coming into these games, you can watch all the footage you want and do all the research on individual players and their style of play, but you don't actually know what it is going to be like until you step out on the pitch.

“Sometimes we don’t deal with that well. If a team gets a good start against us maybe we start dropping back instead of pushing higher up the pitch to put pressure on them, which happened a little bit last week.

“Especially at Tynecastle, when we apply pressure higher up the pitch, we are a lot better. First half against Zurich we were brilliant at that. We kept winning the ball high up the pitch but recently we have struggled to do that. That is down to us out on the pitch. It is about confidence and belief and talking and having faith in each other. I could go on to say a million things about it but, yeah, we are all disappointed.”

Smith is waiting to discover whether the club will open talks about a new contract before January. His current deal expires at the end of the season and he would like to remain in Edinburgh.

“If it was up to me I would want to stay. I love it here and my family loves it here so ideally if I can. It’s up to me to play games and play well, then it is up to the club to make the decision.

“We haven’t spoken about it yet and I haven't really thought about it. I am just trying to play games and work day in, day out. I’m feeling decent. My back is all right and I haven't had a problem at all with the injury I had last year, so that’s good. I’m feeling fit and training all the time but who knows what will happen? That will be up to the gaffer and Joe [Savage]. It will be their decision and I will just have to accept whatever that is.”