Robbie Neilson shot down any suggestions Craig Levein is influencing his Hearts side after a run of disappointing results to start the season.

Hearts are five matches without a victory - two draws and three defeats - since a 4-2 win against Infonet of Estonia back at the start of July.

This week former players Michael Stewart and Gary Mackay have asked questions in the media as to whether Hearts are "a Neilson team or a Levein team" in the way they are set up and trained.

But Neilson was firm that his director of football does not influence the way his team plays.

The head coach at Tynecastle said: "It is my team. I pick the tactics, I make the team selections and the recruitment is down to me as well.

"Ultimately if the team is not performing then it comes back to me. It has no reflection on the rest of the club.

"We have had two fantastic seasons and now this has been brought up after a couple of bad results.

"It is part and parcel of being at a football club that people are going to look for something to criticise.

"But we have always been open and honest that my role as the head coach is to take full control of the first team and that is what we do."

Asked about how he works with the former Scotland manager, who had a successful four years in charge at Tynecastle between 2000 and 2004, Neilson said: "I have a fantastic relationship with Craig. He has been great with me the whole time we have been here.

"This is the way football is going. Gone are the days when it was the butcher-made-good that takes over the club and it is run by the butcher and the manager.

"We have infrastructure here, you can see it is a huge club. We move with the times.

"I think [director of football] is still a role that, in Scotland, we look at and wonder what goes on. But just look down in England and in Europe - they have been doing it for 20 or 30 years.

"Craig's role is to be a soundboard there for me to go and speak to. I'll give him my thoughts on things and he'll give me his thoughts.

"But ultimately it is down to me to make a decision on it. I have to have the final say on what happens in the first team department."

Explaining the way Hearts is structured behind the scenes, Neilson added: "We have the owner, Ann Budge, then the board of directors and then the director of football.

"Then, professional-wise, we have me and we have Roger Arnott in the academy.

"There are structures all the way down from the top and the way it is working is going well.

"I expect it to continue to flourish."

Pundit Stewart - a teammate of Neilson's in the 2004/05 season under the management of Levein and then John Robertson - said in his newspaper column this week that Hearts looked "nervous and short of confidence" and that the team's style had changed for the worse since they gained promotion.

Addressing this point, Neilson said: "The Championship and the Premiership are totally different ball games. You can't be as open and committed to your attacking football.

"You must give teams respect and ensure you are stable and solid.

"You will see Rangers this year as well being more solid. They have recruited more experienced players with more game knowledge and you have to do that.

"Last season we did fantastically well to come up from the second league and finish third, gaining European qualification.

"This year we have dominated a lot of the games against Celtic, St Johnstone and Aberdeen.

"Although the results haven't been great, performance-wise we have been good and we will continue to progress."