Coach Tony Popovic has taken responsibility for Melbourne Victory's on-field woes, but remains confident the A-League Men cellar-dwellars can deliver a circuit-breaking win to turn their season around.
Victory are three points adrift at the bottom of the table after Thursday night's 2-1 loss to Sydney FC and are winless in six matches, not including their abandoned Melbourne derby. Their last victory was against Macarthur on December 11.
It is a stark contrast to Popovic's first campaign at the helm last season when he won the Australia Cup, finished second on the table and reached the semi-finals.
But if the pressure was mounting, Popovic said he was prepared to tackle it head-on.
"There's pressure every week for a coach, and when you're at Melbourne Victory there's always pressure, regardless of the results," he told reporters.
"But we're at the bottom and I'm the head coach and we're losing games and that's my responsibility.
"So it's not a good situation. I'm not happy about it, but the solution isn't running away from it, it's working hard and making sure that we can get that circuit-breaker and we change it.
"And once we change it, I think these boys will grow in a lot of confidence."
Victory's woes have drastically worsened since the violent December 17 pitch invasion by fans.
That incident took the wind out of Victory's sails on and off the pitch, while their problems have been compounded by an unrelated decimation of their attacking stocks.
Victory lost marquee player Luis Nani to a season-ending ACL injury and gun striker Nick D'Agostino to an overseas transfer, while Socceroo Chris Ikonomidis was unavailable against Sydney because of a red-card suspension.
Goalkeeper Paul Izzo and defender Matthew Spiranovic are among the experienced heads unavailable.
However, Popovic said Victory needed to forgo their woes and take their season into their own hands.
"We've got to break the cycle. The cycle's not going to be given to us to be broken - we have to break it. However means possible, we have to break it," he said.
"But you can reinvent the wheel and change everything completely, and what do you do when that doesn't work?
"They're a good group of players, good bunch of boys. We've had, unfortunately, a lot of injuries, lacked stability at the back and continuity, players playing injured to try and help that grow.
"Like I said, the effort's there. But putting that aside, we should be in a better position."
Popovic said Victory were exploring the January transfer market, but he was uncertain if he would have any new signings by next Friday's clash with Wellington.
