Valerien Ismael admitted he is still trying to install more conviction in Blackburn Rovers' attacking play after another blank at Portsmouth.
The Frenchman has had a tough start to life at Ewood Park. Rovers have dropped from sixth to 11th, falling away from the play-off pack and losing four on the bounce.
They have only scored twice in that run too, all against teams in the bottom third of the Championship table. The repeat issues of imposing themselves in the final third has cost them points.
Rovers were poor in the first half at Portsmouth but regained control in the second half. Yet they were still uninspiring and blunt as they tried to break down the hosts and find a route back into the match.
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Ismael felt they did not utilise the strengths of Makhtar Gueye well enough and wants to see more decisive actions to hurt the opponents.
"It was difficult, but I think we were solid. It was not easy with the pitch, the wind, to deal with some situations, but we managed it well," Ismael reflected.
"You saw that the more the game goes on, the more we were on top. At the end, it's just about taking the right decision. We know we have the ball.
"We have to be more brave with the ball, to take more risks into the last third, to cross more, to shoot more, hit the target on target, to try to be more vertical. This is the last bit we need to work on.
"I think we didn't use Gueye as best as we could. I think we needed more to cross the ball, to use his advantage. We need to work on that.
"We're coming in the right areas, we're in a good position, but we turned back and just played the square ball on the back pass rather than cross or shoot on target.
"I think it's just the mindset now to change, that we want to be proactive on the pitch and it's not surprising that we have the ball."
Pompey goalkeeper Nicolas Schmid had a quiet afternoon, only having Yuki Ohashi's routine header to save in the second half. That was Rovers' only shot on target.
Rovers had 63% of the ball after the break, 20% more than the first half, and yet could not break Portsmouth down. The transition of becoming a more possession-based team under Ismael has come with teething issues.
Ismael is not blind to those adaptation problems. He insists the way to fix it is more time on the training ground to install belief and conviction into the players.
"We had more conviction in the second half but we were still missing the desire to score a goal," he continued.
"The desire to shoot on target, to change the mindset and be proactive. If we have the ball we have to risk more to get the win.
"We didn't show enough of that desire to get over the line. We have to repeat our processes, show the players, give trust to the players and say that this is the way we want to go now.
"When we do the right things, it looks good, we get into good situations. We have to repeat the message to the players again and again.
"We didn't test the goalkeeper enough and this is what we must do for the next game."
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