Ipswich manager Mick McCarthy described his side's humiliation at the hands of Leicester City as "awful and abject".
McCarthy said some of his side's defending was embarrassing as City thumped the Tractor Boys for six, thanks to two goals from David Nugent and strikes from Lloyd Dyer, Anthony Knockaert, Martyn Waghorn and Marko Futacs.
"We are brittle and timid at the minute and, if you want to describe it as awful and abject, I am quite happy with that," said McCarthy.
"This was awful. There were no positives and we have to try to make sure it doesn't happen again.
"We talked about being hard to beat and not giving anything stupid away, but we're timid at the minute.
"I don't know if it's a case of getting used to being beat, but that mentality can develop. You lose one goal and then another.
"The manner of the goals we conceded was so poor.
"When it is a little bit brittle, which it is at the moment, everyone feels that way. You can almost see the players thinking 'here we go again'. We've got to get rid of that.
"I'd have taken six points from the opening four games. Did we expect to beat Crystal Palace and Leicester? Probably not. But I expected us to play better. I don't expect my sides to be humiliated the way they have been.
"It does hurt me, of course. I take pride in my teams being organised, hard to beat, tough, resolute. My two Championship-winning sides will prove I like good football too, but we've got to sort out the aforementioned first.
"We could be in-and-out of that bottom three all season. I can't do anything about this one now, we'll look at it this week, pick the bones out of it and then prepare for the game against Peterborough."
