Caley Thistle defender Gary Warren believes manager Richie Foran was wrong to blame himself for his side’s 5-1 defeat by Hearts on Saturday.
The hefty loss at Tynecastle leaves the Inverness men without a point from their opening three fixtures.
Foran, who replaced John Hughes in the summer, tried to shield his team by taking responsibility for the defeat but Warren said the players let the manager down with a poor defensive display.
He said: “It is not the manager’s fault. He has given us plenty of freedom to express ourselves and it is down to the players to stand up and be counted.
“A few of us, myself included, need to show what we are more than capable of as we have done over the last couple of years.
“We need to make ourselves harder to beat. We owe him a performance as we haven’t done that in the last couple of games.
“We gave Hearts a 2-0 head start, the same as we did against Ross County the previous week, and we need to cut out those sloppy mistakes.
“On the positive side we created enough chances to win any normal game of football.
“We are only three games into the season and we will bounce back. “It is important we stick together as a group – and we will.”
Foran said after the Hearts defeat he is aiming to make four new signings this week to bolster his squad, having listed only five of a possible seven substitutes at Tynecastle on Saturday.
Warren added: “I think the squad needs a few more new faces. We don’t have the biggest squad so any additions would be good for us.
“Competition for places is important as it gives players a kick up the backside knowing they need to play well to keep their shirt.
“Kevin McNaughton is going to be missing because of injury and that is a massive blow for us.
“It seems when we get one player back from injury another one gets injured. But it was good to have Josh Meekings back for his first start of the season on Saturday. Although we conceded five goals, I thought he was brilliant given he hadn’t played for a while.
“We have to go again and look to put it right against St Johnstone on Saturday.”
