Lee Johnson admits there will be a lot of 'soul-searching' before he picks a side for Sunderland's next game following their crushing 6-0 defeat at Bolton.
The Black Cats suffered their heaviest ever third-tier defeat as they imploded at the University of Bolton Stadium.
It is not the first time this season Sunderland have suffered a humbling, and Johnson knows he cannot afford any repeats if the club is to maintain a credible automatic promotion challenge.
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Sunderland face strugglers Doncaster at the Stadium of Light next weekend and Johnson may decide to make personnel changes.
"I think the difficult thing will be picking a team for the next game because you're going to have to pick a team that's very different to that one in some way, but at the same time a lot of those boys have put us in a good position leading up to this game," he said.
"There's a lot of soul-searching and a lot of decisions to be made.
"We didn't implement one part of our game that has been so successful this year, and it has been successful.
"All I can do is endeavour to do my best every day, which is what I do. I think I'm an honest worker.
"There aren't many answers because the boys were prepared. They did know what was coming.
"There was nothing that happened in the game that we didn't articulate to them going into the game, but there were just so many poor performances."
The away dressing room was a sombre place at full-time and Johnson admits he went through the full range of emotions.
But he remains steadfast in his belief that Sunderland can still win promotion.
"It was pretty numb on the players' side," he said. "They genuinely felt embarrassed.
"I went through a range of emotions, if I'm honest with you.
"I was angry, I was hurting on a personal level, I don't feel that I or we deserve it, but at the same time I've also got to show that I still believe in them - to sell the dream.
"That bit of it is easy because I do still believe in them and I've seen what they can do when they are at it.
"I know that we're also improving our squad, but I know that that is very difficult to double down on after a day like today.
"All we can do is to provide what everybody wants which is promotion."
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