Philippe Clement admitted Norwich City must use the international break to reset after suffering a 4-3 defeat to Bolton Wanderers at Carrow Road on Sunday.
The Canaries scored three times but conceded four in a frantic encounter, with Clement frustrated by the way his side defended after taking the lead.
“Clearly, what you say, you concede four,” Clement said. “And we could have scored more than three also.
“A frantic game today, really, really frantic game in every sense. Going in front with a good goal, dominating the game, then in the first attack of them, you concede, where we don't defend good enough clearly.
“Then you lose Mo in the first half, so you need to make a sub before half-time, which is never good. All these things disrupt you for sure.
“We had several good attacks. We scored the goals we should have scored also, or could have scored more, but four goals against.
“Not that they do something very special or really classy. It was more because we were not good in those duels in those moments.”
Clement believes the goals Norwich conceded were largely down to individual errors, although he also identified a tactical issue surrounding the second goal.
“It's individual,” he said. “We have so many players behind the ball in these moments. It's about winning the duels, being aggressive on that ball, all the things we talked about in these last weeks.
“We concede the second goal and that's more tactical, in that moment our attacking players are not running back anywhere near what they should do.
“The team fell too much apart with four attacking players and then six behind that, with the gap in between. So that we spoke about at half-time.
“The second half, you get good chances, much better control, you're the better team, but you concede two goals like this which are far too easy.”
The head coach accepted responsibility alongside his players and staff, insisting the group must rediscover its collective identity.
“It's everybody and it's me,” he said. “It's not the players and the staff are something separate. We win together, we lose together.
“I had a feeling that players lost their heads after conceding the first goal and then starting to doubt, what cannot happen, because they did a lot of good things in the past.
“They need to stay emotional, in control and keep their confidence. I felt too many players who lowered their level after conceding the first goal.”
The defeat leaves Norwich with nine points from their opening eight Championship matches, with Clement acknowledging that his side should have taken more from the opening spell.
“We deserved some more points,” he said. “Maybe not today, although I don't think that Bolton created so much, but in the moments we defended badly, they punished us.
“It should have been more points, but we now have the international break to reset everybody, and to see with the internationals when they come back, because that's going to be really short before the Swansea game.
“So to work with the rest and to be in touch with the internationals.”
With a number of players heading away on international duty, Clement says those remaining at the club will use the break to address the issues exposed against Bolton.
“The maximum,” he said when asked how much could be achieved on the training ground. “But it's not only about mood. It's not about the next three weeks to have a holiday camp and to have nice barbecues and to have nice moments together. We had that in the past.
“It's about refreshing some players who gave a lot the last couple of weeks, others who need to step up to come to their best level.
“And to work on some collective things and to refresh them again, because this way of defending I didn't see before too much.
“It's clearly that the minds fell apart and they became individual instead of collective, and we're only strong when we play collective.
“What the team did already many times, but not enough in the last couple of weeks.”
Clement confirmed it was too early to assess the full extent of injuries picked up during Sunday's match, with Mo Touré and Kenny McLean both forced off.
“It's too early to say things,” he said. “Kenny getting that with his ankle in the moment that you make your last change, the last moment that you could change.
“So you need to end the game when you still want to push and you want to come back to score this fourth goal. We had to play with 10.
“All these pieces fell clearly on the other side, and then you lose momentum because of that.”
Clement also revealed that Papa Amadou Diallo is facing further assessment after suffering a problem following the Manchester City game.
“With Papa, it's probably an injury after the Man City game,” he said. “He didn't feel anything after the game, but two days later he felt something and we need to go back to the specialist with him this week to see what's going on there.
“It's always a concern when somebody's injured.”