Alex Neil has admitted that there is currently a real sense of frustration in the Norwich City camp, but has hit back at suggestions that the dressing room is divided.
The 35-year-old was speaking in wake of Cameron Jerome's comments at the weekend when claiming that certain individuals were playing for themselves and not the team.
Norwich went down 5-1 to Sheffield Wednesday in a game that they could not afford to lose if they were to keep their Championship playoff hopes alive, and Neil admits that his side have lacked togetherness at times in recent weeks following a run of one win in six.
"There are not big issues [with the dressing room]," he told reporters. "There is a frustration and how does that manifest itself? How do you release it? Ultimately you are going to look at yourself and then the guys around you and saying that is not enough from me and certainly not enough from you lads as well. You get angry, frustrated. They are not good emotions.
"I don't know what else you expect the guy to say? He spoke honestly and openly and we have shared the frustrations and anger amongst each other because we feel we should be performing better. We went to Brighton, we got beat convincingly, we went to Sheffield and we got beat convincingly. They haven't performed well enough. That is a fact. After games when you speak to a manager or a player everything is really, really raw.
"I don't think anyone could dispute that fact. What he actually said was there was a lack of respect towards the management, in regard to they didn't follow the instructions. That is what you forgot to add. He is talking about a lack of respect, in the sense when your mate is in trouble, or not performing well, what we should be doing is rallying around as a group to bail him out.
"To bail him out of the shit basically. We are not doing that at the moment. We are looking after our own wee bit, which isn't the basis of a great team, is it? However we have displayed those attributes at stages throughout the season. We have not done it consistently enough. When you don't then you just become an average team."
Norwich, who face strugglers Bristol City on Tuesday night in their next outing, are currently eighth in the division and nine points off the playoffs.
Daniel Lewis
