Slavisa Jokanovic remains confident he can turn Fulham's fortunes around despite the Cottagers slipping to a fifth successive defeat as they exited the EFL Cup on Thursday.
Since earning promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs in May, Fulham have won just three competitive matches and pressure is beginning to build on Jokanovic.
With the club in the bottom three having amassed five points from their opening 10 league games, a cup run looked like a chance to boost confidence until the fourth-round draw threw up a daunting trip to holders Manchester City.
A 2-0 defeat at the Etihad Stadium continued Fulham's miserable run, but Jokanovic still has faith in himself and his squad.
"I believe in myself, I must believe in my team," he told reporters.
"We know it's not an easy job ahead of us, [but] it wasn't easy last season, the season before, or three seasons ago when we were fighting not to be relegated.
"We need to not cry so much, and try to find a solution. We are in a situation where our supporters expect a better performance, and we are working in this direction."
Fulham travel to fellow strugglers Huddersfield Town on Monday and Jokanovic hopes that can be the start of an upturn in their fortunes.
"It's a really important game for both teams," he added. "We are going to go there with every intention of winning the game.
"It's not the last game in the Premier League. Victory would be a really important step for us, but it's definitely not the last step.
"If we don't take this step there's still a long period for us to do everything to reach our targets."
