Dan McFarland feels Ulster's recent run of form has to be put into context by the run of fixtures they have had.
A brutal run in December saw McFarland's men lose three consecutive games to Leinster, Sale Sharks and Stade Rochelais.
A win over Connacht before Christmas briefly lifted the gloom before they were brought crashing back down to earth again on New Year's Day after their very late capitulation at home to Munster.
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Ulster will be hoping to bounce back when they face Benetton in Treviso this lunchtime, and although McFarland conceded a number of elements of their game have "regressed" in recent weeks, he pointed out the importance of who they were playing against.
“It's difficult to assess like that because it doesn't take a rocket scientist to look at the fixture list and see the first few games are different to our last five games," he said.
"Three of those games were against three of the best teams in Europe, so the comparison is different.
"Do I think we're playing as well now as we were in rounds three to six? Probably not, and there are a number of factors for that.
"There were a number of things in the game at the weekend that we would normally expect, like our turnovers, our kick chase, that are normally excellent but haven't been good for the last few weeks.
"There are a number of things we've regressed in but you have to take it in the context of the fixtures we're playing.
"We have really good players who are not playing as well as they want to, and some aspects of our system which may not be working as we want them to, but we have to trust in both of those.
"This game in Treviso is very important to us, and we need to get back to playing well again."
McFarland let his players know in no uncertain terms what he thought of the late defeat to Munster last week, but he said he does not pay too much attention to criticism from outside the camp.
“I don't really read the criticism, so I don't know if it's overblown," he said.
"The criticism in terms of are you playing as well as you can do is fair. Work away. We're here doing our job and working very hard at it, and I would like to think history would show we're good at doing our jobs."
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