Each day, our writers will offer their verdicts on the biggest issues and arguments dominating the agenda. Hearts are generating plenty of debate currently, among their own supporters and rivals, after a miserable week for them despite a promising enough start to the season prior to that.

Defeat to archenemies Hibs in a Premier Sports Cup semi-final was bad enough, but they followed it up by losing 3-1 to FC Thun (ninth in the Swiss League) in the Conference League, and it could have been more that night. Yesterday, they were four goals down to Falkirk by half-time and lost 5-2 in the end. That certainly should not be happening at Tynecastle.

Fans are frustrated and some are already questioning the management of Wouter Vrancken after the Belgian's summer arrival. They are now also questioning the club's recruitment partner, Jamestown Analytics, after the failure of many of their summer signings to hit the ground running. Sporting director Graeme Jones is also in the firing line as a result of this.

They have been dealing with a ridiculous amount of injuries, particularly in defence and midfield, but many do not feel that is enough of a mitigating factor to excuse the form.

What do our writers make of it all?

Matthew Lindsay and Blair Meikle give their answers to today’s three Burning Questions.

Some Hearts fans are starting to turn against Wouter Vrancken after recent results. Do you think that's fair or should he still have credit in the bank from earlier in the season?

Matthew Lindsay: As bad as the defeat to Falkirk at Tynecastle was yesterday, I think the Belgian is deserving of a little bit more understanding than he is currently receiving from a section of the Hearts’ support.

So many Scottish clubs have struggled to juggle European and domestic commitments over the years. With the number of injuries which the capital side have now, it is asking a lot of them to successfully negotiate their hectic schedule.

Did the mentally and physically draining encounter with Thun in Switzerland on Thursday night affect their performance this weekend? Few managers in the country would have been as grateful to get to the international break as Vrancken.

He has been a victim of his own success in some respects. His predecessors Robbie Neilson, Steven Naismith and Neil Critchley all struggled to fight on more than one front.

That said, after one win in eight, he desperately needs to get back to winning ways against Dundee away on Saturday, November 21.

Blair Meikle: It is far, far too early to be turning on the head coach. Hearts currently sit fourth in the table and would jump back to third if they can win their game in hand - that is nowhere near a disaster or an endgame scenario. There were positive signs before all of the injuries and it is only around a month since fans were sharing clips and waxing lyrical about the football being played.

Despite all of that, there have been worrying signs in the last week in particular. Most notably the team being too vulnerable on the counter-attack, and conceding the same sort of goals over and over.

The Belgian did reference a lot of the missing players being ones who have "tactical awareness", so their return is something that could help with that.

However, Hearts have three very tough games after the international break (Dundee away, Monaco home, Celtic home) so another three negative results will really pile the pressure on.

The injuries decimating Hearts' squad have been well documented. To what extent can they be used as an excuse for the recent run, or should they be doing better even with the players available to them?

Matthew Lindsay: I think not having Craig Halkett, Harry Milne, Tom Renaud, Blair Spittal, Calvin Miller, Oisin McEntee, Christian Borchgrevink, Rogers Mato, Tomas Magnusson and Eduardo Ageu is a reasonable excuse for Hearts’ slump in form.

At the same time, I do think that Vrancken has to shoulder much of the responsibility for the displays. His tactics were naïve in the 7-1 defeat to Celtic at Parkhead. He could be given a pass for that debacle given that it was his first game in the East End of Glasgow. But shipping five to Falkirk at home is unforgivable.

Can his team produce the sort of fluid and expansive play that he favours when they are missing so many key men? He perhaps need to be a little bit more pragmatic in his current predicament.

Blair Meikle: The injuries cannot be ignored. I've heard a lot of people saying 'the injuries cannot be an excuse' - but of course they can, to an extent. Rob any manager of 11 members of his squad, mostly starters, and performances and results will take a hit.

For example, there is no way he wants to be playing Jamie McCart at left-back, and Stuart Findlay is someone he did not appear to fancy, yet they're making up half of his back four. They are two of the players who have cost him in recent games.

All that said, the team Hearts put out yesterday should not be conceding five goals at home, especially to a team that is not Celtic or Rangers, and the manager needs to take his share of the blame for that. And his decision to play Yan Dhanda in midfield was not one I agreed with.

I think confidence is a big issue just now and a big reason why players are doing things without conviction, both in and out of possession. But you need to be made of tougher stuff to play for Hearts.

Jamestown Analytics was seen as a gamechanger when the partnership was forged but there are questions around this summer's recruitment with signings like JJ Williams, Amadou Ba-Say and others not hitting the ground running. Does this, and the form under the new manager, raise doubts about the direction of the club under this model?

Matthew Lindsay: Jamestown Analytics may have been able to pluck players like Claudio Braga and Alexandros Kyziridis from relative obscurity, but the football intelligence consultancy has certainly had its failures.

It is fair to say that JJ Williams and Amadou Ba-Say have not proved value for money to date.

Many of the players who took Hearts to the brink of the Scottish title last season, not least Stuart Findlay and Oisin McEntee, were brought in on the recommendation of then manager Derek McInnes.

But a little patience is required. It took some time for the data-driven approach which Tony Bloom introduced at Brighton down in England and Royal Union Saint-Gilloise in Belgium to bear fruit. Mistakes were made along the way and invaluable lessons were learned.

Scottish football is a unique environment and it may be a few seasons before Jamestown tunes in fully to what is required for a player to meet its demands.

Blair Meikle: Like with the head coach question, it is too early to be writing off Jamestown Analytics. Especially when the evidence of how it has worked for Brighton, Union Saint-Gilloise, Como and others is there for all to see. Why would it all of a sudden flop here?

There are massive questions over much of the recruitment in the summer. Especially because neither Williams nor Ba-Sy have been what the club needed at centre-forward and the squad has been left massively short in defensive positions. A number of the summer arrivals do not look like being successes. However, it should be pointed out that Josh McPake, Calvin Miller, Beau Reus and Tom Renaud do, while Malachi Fagan-Walcott and Laurent Mendy have shown signs despite struggling in recent weeks.

It needs to be remembered that many of the early signings Union Saint-Gilloise made with Jamestown faded into obscurity, but the Belgian side made a few trades at modest profit before slowly building things up. Hearts have made a profit on Alexandros Kyziridis and Michael Steinwender, and Claudio Braga could still be the next on the conveyor belt. Then the JTA model can start to be ramped up.