David Wagner said that his Norwich City side failed to create enough to beat Middlesbrough at Carrow Road, eventually falling to a 2-1 defeat.
Goals from Sam Greenwood and Samuel Silvera gave Boro a 2-0 lead before Jonathan Rowe scored in the final minute, but it was too little too late for the Canaries.
"Yes, of course it's frustrating," Wagner said.
"We were below par today, we had some spells in the first half, first 15 minutes we were ok. In the second half, we had maybe half an hour where we were ok as well but, in general, it was not a good performance. In terms of the effort and attitude, I have no complaints. I will not blame the players, they really tried and fought.
"We looked affected confidence-wise unfortunately today and that's why we weren't able to perform to our level and conceded this defeat. We conceded goals again which were hard to take, from the moment we conceded them and how we conceded them. It's difficult to take. Football life is not always easy.
"At the minute, it's hard, that's the truth. It's me that has to find the ideas and solutions to get the confidence back into the players, to show them a way out of this difficult period that we have. The only way you can do it is you stick together, take it on the chin and prepare yourself to be better in the next game."
Again, the head coach pointed to brief lapses in concentration being punished by the opposition but said that the current run has depleted some of the confidence in the squad.
"I think they were well-organised. At the end of the day, we didn't create enough offensively and defensively the goals we gave away were quite sloppy. This is something we can't afford, we have to make sure we find a way to get clean sheets, to be more solid and to be totally honest the goals we conceded were individual mistakes in the tactical approach.
"They were more individual moments where the boys weren't concentrated, sometimes difficult times affect players confidence-wise in decision-making and this is what it was today. We have to do better.
"It's quite easy if you have a period that isn't working well to blame each other but this is not the character of this dressing room. It's clear that no-one is satisfied. We have to come back to what we have done beforehand and that's how we will do it."
On a positive note, he was able to welcome both Marcelino Núñez and Borja Sainz back from injury in the same with the Chilean international playing from the start.
"Nacho worked very hard, had his opportunity with the shot at the crossbar. Borja looked lively when he came on.
"It's difficult times for all the guys at the minute but good to have them back, good that Jonny Rowe scored again but at the end of the day, we have problems and we have to find solution. The first thing we have to do is we have to stick together."