Erol Bulut has urged Cardiff City to “wake up again” as they look to end the Championship season with a flourish.
Cardiff go to Coventry City on Monday with their slim play-off hopes all but wiped out after successive defeats.
Having been beaten at Swansea City before the international break, Bulut’s side suffered a bleak home defeat to Sunderland on Friday.
“I hope from Monday we are going to show a different Cardiff City,” the Bluebirds manager said.
“We lost confidence. I don’t know why because the team had confidence.
“The fans are also disappointed, for sure, maybe more than us because they support us everywhere. They travel everywhere.
“We want to give them as much as possible, everything back, and at least to fight and run and to try, and not give up so early.”
After narrowly avoiding relegation last season, Cardiff have progressed during this campaign.
They looked like play-off contenders in the early months of 2023-24 and hauled themselves back into contention courtesy of a four-game winning run which culminated with a notable victory over Ipswich Town on 9 March.
But they were well-beaten in the south Wales derby and failed to respond against Sunderland, with Bulut describing the performance against the Black Cats as one of the worst of his reign.
With his contract up this summer and no talks as yet over a new deal, Bulut’s future at Cardiff is in doubt.
The former Turkey Under-21 international said after the Sunderland loss that uncertainty over his job could be affecting his players.
But as his side prepare to take on seventh-placed Coventry, Bulut says his players must bounce back to form, just as they did after a poor run which last for much of January and February.
“We know how to wake up again, how we did it before, and I hope we do it quickly because on Monday we play against Coventry,” he said.
“Every player has to get back to his best performance, his best shape, and we try to make the best of the last seven games, for the fans, for the club and also for himself.
“When you see the whole season, there were too many ups and downs with the performances.
“When we could have consistency in performance, maybe we could have a few points more.”