Sydney FC coach Ufuk Talay has revealed he took an unusual pre-match approach before the loss to Melbourne City which left their finals hopes looking shakier.
Saturday's 3-2 defeat at Allianz Stadium put the Sky Blues seventh in the league with five rounds remaining of the home-and-away A-League Men season.
They sit three points off sixth-placed Adelaide United, next round's opponent.
Sydney star Douglas Costa had placed his side in a position to grab a comeback victory after drawing scores level at 2-all in the 39th minute.
But the home side could not rally further, with Alessandro Lopane scoring the match-winner in the 61st minute to snap Sydney's five-match unbeaten streak.
Talay acknowledged post-game that he had emphasised the importance of victory beforehand.
"We've always spoken about performance," Talay said.
"We believe that if we perform well, eight times out of 10 we can get the desired results.
"We always focus on the game that we want to play ... (but) today was the first time I actually showed the players the table before the game of where we're sitting and where we can get to.
"This is a game that we actually told the players that we needed to win."
Sydney struggled with injuries throughout the match.
They lost influential midfielder Leo Sena in the ninth minute and Joel King later went down with a calf complaint.
Adrian Segecic had come on to replace Sena, a move Talay admits he had not wanted to do early in the match against a red-hot City outfit.
"If you break down Sega's season, when he's had the most impact is when he's come on for 20 minutes to half an hour," Talay said.
"He definitely still brings us energy ... so look, he came on. He did well.
"He's an important player for us, whether he starts or he comes off the bench.
"I can be very ruthless as a coach, and it's for me to also educate the average punter out there."
