Neil Harris believes there are a number of factors behind Cardiff City's poor start to the season, including the players' mentality and the hangover suffered from losing to Fulham in the play-off semi-final last term.
The Bluebirds have endured a sub-par start to the 2020/21 campaign, winning only two of their opening nine games and having yet to register a victory at home, turning out two particularly mediocre performances in their last two matches.
City lie 17th in the table and while it is still very early days, a string of bad performances have led to mounting anger and frustration from supporters.
And while Harris could not put his finger specifically on why his side are just not clicking, he believes the Fulham defeat has played more of a part than he initially realised.
"I probably underestimated the disappointment at losing to Fulham, the short turnaround.," he said ahead of the Barnsley clash.
"The mix of players going and coming in. Settling the group as quickly as possible in the short turnaround.
"I can’t say exactly why we’ve gone behind in so many games, it’s certainly a mentality one.
"Great group of lads here, I love working with them every day. You won’t find many people who have a bad word to say about many of my players, but it’s just that mentality going on to the pitch.
"We certainly had that concentration and focus from June, July onwards to the end of the players.
"We have to regain that quickly and that’s my job to find that within the changing room and pick the right team selection and tactics to win games."
Harris' frustration boiled over after the 3-2 defeat at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium last weekend, where he hit out at players who were underperforming.
While he admitted he had "mellowed" since Saturday afternoon, he still holds a strong view on his team's performance in west London.
He conceded that teams will often go through poor patches during the course of the season, but what he said he could not accept was the manner in which his team were outplayed in that first half against QPR.
"What I can’t accept is what I saw in the first half hour of the game," he added. "Not competing, not coming out on top in the basics of football. That’s the least I expect from my players.
"That’s why I was scathing after the game.
"I’ve spoken to the players, reviewed the game and spent a lot of time doing video analysis and putting a few things that were wrong, right.
"But you can only put things right on the pitch and that will start against Barnsley."
Harris said he speaks to the board regularly but does not need reminding of what his duties are as Bluebirds manager.
The City boss, who is approaching his one-year anniversary in the dugout, has endured tough patches before, most notably around Christmas and the New Year last term, but turned it around to spark an incredible run up the Championship table.
Harris described himself as a "winner and a fighter" and is determined to once again disprove the doubters.
"I speak to the board," he said. "We all want to win football matches. No one is more disappointed when we don’t win than me.
"I take pride in my job and I’ve got a very privileged position at Cardiff City and I’ve come here to be successful and I want to win. I don’t need anyone reminding me of my duties at this club.
"The board have been fantastic to me, they have been supportive and continue to be supportive. The owner knows I’m a winner and a fighter and I want to do that.
"I have shown in my time here that even with a bad spell we come out the other side and quickly start to win games again and that is the aim now, starting tomorrow."
