Valerien Ismael says Blackburn Rovers will look internally to iron out the mistakes that cost them against Birmingham City.
Two goals in stoppage time saw Rovers surrender a one-goal lead and finish the match empty-handed. It was particularly painful as Blackburn had done plenty right across the 90 minutes and deserved something from the game.
Ismael looked crestfallen after the match, having watched his side concede self-inflicted goals. The head coach insisted they had to take responsibility for the defeat despite the positives in the performance.
That includes coaching staff, with Ismael unhappy at Rovers' structure from the set-piece that cost them the game. He says internal discussions will be held to ensure that those same errors aren't repeated.
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"The finer details, the decision-making, the game management. As I say, actually, the 11 minutes in extra time, the 10 minutes was really good," he told The Lancashire Telegraph.
"We managed very well because they scored a goal and you thought, OK, they want to get the momentum, but we stopped them. We pushed them back. We forced them to defend.
"It's just the detail, your positioning, to learn why you want to play short, it's one minute to play, just stay in your position. The taker has to deliver a better ball.
"We must look at why we picked this taker, there are a lot of questions we need to answer internally and to make sure that next time we deal with the situation much better."
Ismael felt his side produced a clear improvement in performance after looking quite toothless against West Brom. Rovers carried more of a goal threat, particularly in the second half, and restricted Birmingham to few chances.
The game plan was well executed until the final moments. Though he was visibly very frustrated that his side had thrown away the win, Ismael could still pick out positives from the performance.
"As I said to the boys, it's terrible because you cannot blame anyone," he continued.
"After the game against West Brom, we said, OK, we didn't create any chances. It was not enough. So we need to work on it and the week after, we were much better. We scored, we penetrated.
"It was a tough opponent, but I think we managed the game well. We did everything we had to do. Then two moments just change the game.
"This is something we have to work on to make sure it doesn't happen again. It's a long season and anything can happen. I would say if everything happens once and we can learn from it, then the future will be bright.
"We were on the front foot. I think the feeling in the stadium was the same. All of a sudden, because our positioning wasn't right, we get punished.
"That's football and it's cruel but at least there was clear improvement from last week in how we played. Todd was back, that's positive, we see clearly that we have the quality.
"We know what we have to do, where we need to strengthen. We will do it and find the right player but it takes time to get the right picture.
"When the window is shut, we will have more calm and a chance to work properly, focusing on just the football. Then things will go in the right direction."
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