Yann M'Vila says Sunderland must be open about their shortcomings to come through their early-season struggles.
The Premier League season may only be two games old, but respective 4-2 and 3-1 defeats to Leicester City and Norwich City have already lead to talk of a crisis at the Stadium of Light.
Head coach Dick Advocaat called a team meeting to discuss the team's poor performances following the Norwich loss.
France international M'Vila, signed on a season-long loan from Rubin Kazan earlier this month, believes the frank nature of the meeting can only be a good thing for the team.
"You can't just say 'it's not bad, it's not bad'," M'Vila, who made his debut against Norwich, told The Sunderland Echo.
"No, it is bad, so let's get going and work hard for each other.
"You need to raise your concerns because it's easy to applaud and say everything is all right.
"It's much harder to talk about things and what you did wrong. We had a very good meeting on Sunday, and the coach stressed that above all else, we need to be defensively solid before we attack.
"It was good to talk. I can understand what was being said, even if can't speak the language yet. But you need to speak about the difficulties."
