Lawrence Shankland insists anyone taking a change in fortunes at Hearts for granted needs to wake up to reality – because right now they’re not very good. The straight talking Jambos skipper fronted up after Thursday’s brutal Boxing Day derby knock down by Hibs sent them tumbling back into the bottom two.
And with hurt and frustration etched across his face the Tynecastle hitman delivered a withering assessment of where Neil Critchley’s side are at with a relegation scrap looming. Hearts were booed off by brassed-off home punters after the derby disaster. It was an echo of seven days earlier when furious fans turned on their side having watched them blow their chances of Euro progression against Moldovan minnows Petrocub,
Shankland reckons they were well within their rights to hit the Boxing Day boos and admitted HIbs were the better team. And when it was put to him that there was a perception the Jambos are too good for things not to turn, the Scotland striker admitted: “You need to be realistic. We’re in a position where the league would tell you that we’re not exactly a brilliant team.
“I think the season would tell you that. Right now we’re not performing like a good team. So we are where we are on the table because we deserve to be there and that’s the truth. If anyone shies away from that, they’re telling themselves a lie.
“It’s never easy to lose matches, especially a derby game. There’s so much riding on it and it’s the game you’re looking forward to coming into. But on the day I think a better team probably won.
“There’s obviously frustration from the fans and I understand that. At the end of the game they showed that frustration. That’s fully acceptable. It’s a fan base that expects us to win games, especially derbies. It’s hugely disappointing. We know that and I fully understand the frustration and anger. You need to take that on the chin. It can be quite hard at times, but I thought the crowd were good on Sunday. I thought they were behind us. It wasn’t the case of the crowd getting on top of us. I didn’t feel that at all.
“Derbies usually bring that buzz and it only takes a small moment to change a crowd and get a lift, but I didn’t feel like the crowd were bad at all. They were behind us.”
Hearts will make their first use of Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool in January and Critchley admitted after the full-time whistle on Sunday that he knows exactly where he needs to strengthen his squad. Defensive reinforcements are needed with Frankie Kent and Stephen Kingsley sidelined by injury.
But there’s no doubt the priority has to be firepower. Shankland – entering the final six months of his own contract – wasn’t shying away from the need for more quality either. He said: “It can help, aye. Obviously you need quality. You need to recruit quality players that can bring a level that’s expected to perform at the football club. That’s what we need going forward. It’s up to the club and the management.
“We need to have belief that we can turn it around but we also need to find the quality to go and do it. You see the boys training, they can do it. It’s just bringing it to the match and that’s a hard bit and that’s where we’re struggling at the moment.”
Sunday’s trip to Dingwall takes on extra significance now with the Staggies two points above Critchley’s side in 10th thanks to an impressive win at Dundee on Thursday. Shankland’s goalscoring form, much like Hearts’, has fallen off a cliff in comparison to last season.
Just three goals from 26 games tells the story not just of the strikers’ struggles but also a team way too reliant on one man. Hearts bossed 67 per cent of the ball and had 15 attempts on goal against Hibs. But nobody needs to tell Shankland where the problem lies.
He said: “There’s a frustration that we’re not doing what we need to do in the final third to put teams under pressure. Goalies aren’t making saves, week in week out. We’re not putting enough pressure on the opposition goal for how much ball we have. We’re not doing that, we’re not producing that.
“That comes down to the individuals and levels of quality that we’re putting together. Quite a lot of our game recently with our number of crosses into the box has been really, really high. But the quality of the crosses and the through balls, that’s the bit we need to work on.
“It’s alright having the numbers and the levels that we want them to be at. We want those to be up there and put the team under pressure but there needs to be that quality there for us to go and create chances and give ourselves opportunities to score.
“In the second half against Hibs we got a lot of possession. But it’s the kind of story of this season. We’ve got a lot of the ball, get it into positions and we don’t have that real quality to go and put a team under pressure. Make them defend, make their goalie make saves. We’re not producing that at the minute and that’s causing us issues.”