Danny Cowley says the Huddersfield Town players and staff have taken a long, hard look at themselves ahead of this weekend's Sky Bet Championship clash with Nottingham Forest.
The relegation-threatened Terriers resumed their season with a disappointing 2-0 home defeat to Wigan Athletic.
That result has left them 20th in the table and only one point above the relegation zone.
On Sunday, they take on fifth-placed Forest at the City Ground (2.15pm kick-off).
The Reds were denied victory on their return to action by a late leveller at Sheffield Wednesday.
All teams are adapting to playing behind closed doors due to the coronavirus pandemic, along with various rule changes.
"It is the same for both groups of players, so their are no excuses," Cowley told ExaminerLive.
"We had three preparation games in similar circumstances, we've tried to cover every base in terms of our preparation and knew exactly what the changes in law were.
"We practised that in our last warm-up game against Middlesbrough, we practised the rule changes in training, with the multi-ball system we now have, we did all our planning in terms of potential and possible subs and tried to look at all the ramifications - so we don't want to make excuses, it's 11 vs 11.
"When you step over the paint, ultimately there's two goals and a ball - it's still football.
"I don't think that's the reason for the poor performance (playing in an empty stadium), I just felt as a group we weren't able to play to the levels we want.
"Individually, the players have had to go home and look at themselves, look at how they could have done better and helped the group more.
"And, as a management team, we have to go and look at how we could help the collective more."
