Nicky Hayen hopes Saturday’s clash with Derby County can be the “spark” Burnley need to kickstart their season.
The Clarets find themselves at the bottom of the Championship table and are still searching for their first victory.
There has been a further injury blow, with Aaron Ramsey facing six weeks out of action with a hamstring issue.
“I have already said I am not going to lie, it has to be a must-win game,” said Hayen. “We have been waiting for a really, really long time and everyone is craving towards this win.
“As I said before, we just need that spark to change this situation and of course a win is the best solution for it. We are going to look with a lot of courage towards that win.”
The head coach continued: “For everyone, for the fans, for the board, for the management, everyone who loves this club is craving for this win so we are aware.
“I understand their frustration, that they are upset and annoyed. I completely understand and I accept it, but again this is not the way I am thinking.
“I want to change this as quickly as possible because they have deserved for a long time a win, and (against Derby) we have another good opportunity.”
The Clarets suffered their fourth defeat of the campaign at Swansea City last weekend, and Hayen admitted there was disappointment in the dressing room.
But the boss insisted he senses “motivation” within the group to put right their poor start.
“Of course (there was) disappointment because with the amount of points, it is clear we wanted to have a different start,” he said.
“But you see also a lot of motivation, and it has been a promising week up to now because they have showed a lot of courage and encouraging things in the training sessions, and a lot of motivation.
“This gives us a really good feeling towards the weekend. Although we didn't start the season in a good way, they are still confident and actually everyone is confident we can change things.”
There were some positives to take from the display against the Swans, who are sitting joint-top of the table at this early stage, but Burnley were left ruing individual errors again.
“I don't like to point the finger at players,” Hayen insisted. “Everyone wins together and loses together.
“Of course, individual mistakes are something individual. But in some situations another player can help, make yourself more available than hiding yourself, so it is always a common thing in football and it is a team sport.
"This is something we just have to deal with. The biggest difference in the last game was the efficiency.
“We also created chances but we didn't finish them, and we gave the goals away too easily. But we did also a lot of good things and if you see how we created the chances, we created them ourselves without a mistake of the opponent.
“So we were also emphasising the good things and that is what we have to do. You can talk about a lot of things that are maybe negative, but you don't come out of the situation when you stay on the negative side.
“That is what we try to do and we saw in the last two days really good things. This is what we will do until Saturday.”
After the Derby game, the Clarets have three weeks without a fixture due to the extended international break and Hayen is eager to make the most of the extra time on the training pitch.
The head coach took charge as the squad jetted off to the United States for their pre-season camp, and the games have come thick and fast since then.
“It is a perfect break because for us, it is a mini pre-season again,” he explained. “I think you saw there were a lot of different players in pre-season than now. There were a lot of games so we couldn't practice a lot with the new players.
“Also, physically we are not there yet where we want to be. The most important thing is that it's like a mini pre-season so they will have running programmes.
“We are trying and looking to organise a training camp abroad, to stay 24 hours a day together, to learn about each other on the pitch, off the pitch and get a really good team.
“I don't want to repeat myself because I have said it already for a long time but we are creating a team, building a team.
“I know if you look from the outside to the points, sometimes to the average performances that we have, I can't claim a lot. But we are changing things and this is the belief that everyone still has.”
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