Mauricio Pellegrino admitted that he is feeling the pressure as Southampton manager after his side slipped to a convincing 3-0 defeat away at his former club Liverpool.
The Spaniard's return to the club he spent six months as a player and two years as a first-team coach was ultimately a sorry one as Mohamed Salah's first-half brace and Philippe Coutinho's strike condemned the Saints to another loss.
Southampton have now won only one of their last seven with Pellegrino having yet to indicate he can yield improved performances than those which got Claude Puel sacked last term.
He has kept much the same tactics and style as the Frenchman and as a result the South Coast club sit 14th with disgruntled supporters having even booed the team off after a home defeat to Burnley before the international break.
Again they disappointed here. Southampton failed to muster even a single shot on target and created very few threatening attacks despite a promising first 20 minutes and another good start after the break.
"We never created a chance to score"
"Yes, for sure," Pellegrino said when asked if he was worried by his side's results. "It's not good news for us. We know we are in a difficult moment and we have to react because in the Premier League every team is difficult.
"The difference between the group of teams that we are in is really tight and we have to try to react and show our best face next week.
"I think we started well, the first half-an-hour because we were pressing more or less okay and we made a couple of counter-attacks.
"But after that we made a couple of mistakes that against this type of team, you cannot. They have got quality in front and don't need many chances to score.
"After the second goal it was really difficult for us to come back into the game.
"We tried to change some players and to change positionally, even our style a little bit - playing more direct with Shane [Long] or Charlie [Austin]. But we never created this chance to try to score and be in the game."
Saints boss concerned by lack of belief
On his side's attitude, Pellegrino - who has won just three of his 13 games as manager at St Mary's - added that he was pleased by their approach initially but felt his side gave in a little too easily at 2-0.
"At the beginning, yes [I was pleased with their attitude]," he said.
"But I think the second goal, we were really disappointed after conceding the second one. We felt that we never could do something more to try to be in the game."
And on also being concerned by that, he continued: "Yes for sure, because okay in the second-half we tried in the beginning.
"We had the Sofiane [Boufal] chance or maybe Ryan [Bertrand]. But again, the third goal finished our expectation.
"Against this team, when you are losing 2-0 away, it's difficult to come back. Obviously we have to react in a different way because in football, everything can happen.
"I think we tried and our position and our preparation before the game was pretty good for me. We have to say that Liverpool were better than us today."