An angry Ange Postecoglou slammed his Tottenham side after Thursday night's defeat at home to West Ham.
For the fifth game in a row, Spurs took the lead - this time through Cristian Romero's looping header - but ultimately threw it away as the Hammers came from behind.
They are now the first team to take a 1-0 lead in five successive Premier League matches without winning any of them and one point from the last 15 on offer has de-railed a season that had looked so promising.
Postecoglou's attacking philosophy has won much praise since he took the Tottenham job in the summer but however attractive some of his side's play has been, even with a chronic injury list, he says winning games is what matters.
"It's another game we've dominated and haven't turned our dominance into something more tangible and kept the opposition in the game," he said. "I thought we were really poor in both boxes, with our finishing and both goals were terrible to concede.
"We had some unbelievable chances. For us it's another game like the [Aston] Villa game and other games earlier this year. Our attacking play has a long way to go. In general we have a long way to go, and last night was more evidence of that.
"I set teams up to win games and 1-0 at half-time was not a good performance from us. A good performance would have been 3-0 or 4-0 up, as was the case against Villa. And when you don't [score more], and give up goals you shouldn't like yesterday then you get what you deserve.
"It's to do with lacking conviction, at the moment we're just going through this spell where we're playing so-called good football but I don't see that. All I see is us not really showing any real clear conviction in what we're doing."
Tottenham enjoyed overwhelming possession in the first half and led through Romero's header. But West Ham hit back with goals by Jarrod Bowen and James Ward-Prowse with their fans joyously singing "Tottenham Hotspur, it's happening again".
After Sunday's enthralling 3-3 draw at champions Manchester City it had appeared Tottenham had stopped the rot.
But after defeat by West Ham left them in fifth place with 27 points, nine behind leaders Arsenal, they will need some picking up ahead of Sunday's clash at home to Newcastle United.
"There's no alternative [but to respond], that's the game we're in," the Spurs manager said. "There's no point in feeling sorry for ourselves, looking for a cuddle anywhere.
"There's only one way to change our circumstances and that is to come here on Sunday and put in a performance, not just play good football but go out there and show some conviction about ourselves as a team.
"Sometimes we can disguise how we're going by playing some nice stuff but like I said from day one, that's not what I'm about. I want to win and that's why I came to this football club and that's the message.
"We've still got a long way to go, I've said that from the start, we're still right at the beginning of what we need to create and days like that just give me further evidence and fuel of how much we need to do."
