Hearts defender Michael Smith opens up on high standards, attacking and expectations

Hearts star Michael Smith is preparing to play every minute between now and the end of the season.

Michael Smith has been a consistent presence once again for Hearts. Picture: SNS

Jamie Brandon’s season-ending injury means the Northern Irishman is the club’s only first-team right-back, with Cammy Logan loaned to Cove Rangers.

Robbie Neilson is keen to bring in a back-up on loan, but the target's parent club are "dragging their heels”, according to the Hearts boss.

For Hearts supporters, however, they will be more than happy to see the reliable fans’ favourite play every minute of every match.

"I want to play every minute, obviously,” Smith said.

"It's horrible what's happened to Jamie, we've got a great relationship. He's a good player but the fact he's injured now I'll have to try and play every minute.

"I can't let my standards slip. It's hard to go through a full season playing really well and sometimes you do have a little lull. But it's about not dropping below a standard you have set.

"I'm going to do everything in my power to help us win this league.”

The Northern Irishman is currently the only first-team right-back. Picture: SNS

Despite not being renowned as a flying full-back, Smith has been one of the team’s key players in an attacking sense. No player has played more passes into the final third in the Championship.

He features in the top five in the league for passes, through passes, key passes, smart passes and progressive passes. Essentially, he is highly involved and looks to pass forward.

With teams often sitting back against Hearts, Smith sees more of the ball and is able to play further up the pitch, but is candid with his assessment of recent performances.

Possession into chances

He said: “We've got a little bit of a lead which is nice, but at the same time we still have to play a lot of tough teams. We have to give our all and perform a little bit better than we have recently. If we do that, we should be alright.

"We seem to have a lot of possession and teams sit back against us which happened on Friday night. But we need to turn possession into chances and get more numbers in the box. It's down to us. We know ourselves performances haven't been great lately but we'll turn that around, keep winning games and hopefully increase our lead at the top.

"It was a bit more exciting at the start of the season!

"We scored quite a lot but conceded a few. We spoke about defending as a unit to try and keep more clean sheets. We've been doing that which is pleasing but it's put more onus on the forward players.

“Personally speaking, me and Stephen Kingsley like to attack but it's about setting up right behind the ball as well and sometimes we've been a little too high and left the centre halves exposed. I think we've sorted that out. but we need to get the balance right and get the team ticking again."

He added: "We're expected to win the league. Winning it by five points or 50 points; to me, that doesn't really matter if we get the promotion that we deserve.

"Hopefully we can go on and achieve that but at the minute, we just have to take each game as it comes."

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