Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino admits he is hurt by seeing his side in the bottom half of the Premier League.
A terrible start to the campaign, amid a backdrop of dressing-room unrest and misfiring players, has seen Spurs win just three of their opening 10 games.
They are closer to the relegation zone than they are the top four going into Sunday's visit to Everton, which has taken on extra significance.
Spurs have not been this low in the table since the first few weeks of Pochettino's reign and the Argentinian is not enjoying looking at the standings.
"The most important thing is how we're going to finish, it's not this moment," he said. "It's not nice to see us in the middle of the table, but that's the reality that we need to accept and by accepting that we can only improve.
"If not you're going to struggle. In our minds, we need time, need to be strong, be solid and start to win.
"We need to be positive, feel that positivity and make us believe that we can beat any team.
"At the moment we struggle with our confidence, we drop a lot. That's only time."
Spurs' dreadful start has not been restricted to the league as they suffered an embarrassing defeat to League Two side Colchester in the Carabao Cup third round.
That did at least allow them a free week this week, which was spent rebuilding confidence after Sunday's 2-1 defeat at Liverpool.
"It was an important week to recover the feelings after a tough game against Liverpool," Pochettino added.
"It's important again to create that and achieve all what you want. It's a situation that only we can fix by winning games.
"We know very well it is our responsibility to deliver a very good job and very good performance on Sunday against a very good team like Everton trying to win because it's going to be the best medicine to fix all."
