Craig Levein has lamented Hearts' approach as the Gorgie side fell to a 3-0 home defeat against Fiorentina in the Europa Conference League.
Rolando Mandragora gave the Serie A giants the lead after just four minutes and it was one way traffic throughout as Christian Kouame doubled the visitors advantage before the break. Luka Jovic had spurned several opportunities but finally rounded off the scoring with a clinical finish as the clock ticked down on full-time.
And the former Scotland boss insists Robbie Neilson's men didn't lay a glove on the Italians as he referenced Hearts letting them "take what they want". He told BBC Sportsound: "Any team can beat any other team on any given evening. The thing that's annoyed me tonight about Hearts is they didn't give themselves a chance of winning. They never laid a glove.
"You have also got to look at the back line and the players that they have gone missing defensively. Okay they've got arguably the best goalkeeper in the league still but I mean in front of them they have got a group of players in front of them what are cobbled together in all honesty.
"That's why I didn't fancy Hearts tonight because I thought defensively they wouldn't be good enough. The biggest disappointment for me was there wasn't a finger laid on Fiorentina. Before the game I said they needed to make it as uncomfortable evening as possible for Fiorentina hey made it the best evening possible for Fiorentina. This was almost like 'welcome into my house take anything you want'."
Levein was also quick to reiterate he felt Hearts' squad was never going to able to cope balancing Scottish Premiership football with European games. And the 57-year-old reckons there's too big a gap between first team stars and fringe players.
"The only way they would have been able to run the two races at the same time was to keep everyone fit and they've got injuries and the squad in it's entirety wasn't big enough", added Levein.
"Also I don't think they've got enough; there isn't a small enough drop off between their best players and the ones who come in to replace them. For me that's quite critical as well."
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