Ross County chairman Roy MacGregor has labelled some of his team’s performances this season as awful, but retains faith manager Jim McIntyre can rescue the campaign.
County have won just two of 23 league fixtures this season, and are six points adrift of Motherwell and St Mirren at the bottom of the Premiership.
Former Queen of the South manager McIntyre succeeded the sacked Derek Adams in September and has rung the chances, bringing in 11 new players and allowing seven to leave.
MacGregor said: “We’ve picked a manager we need to believe in. He hasn’t had his own team.
“In this transfer window, he has managed to get the players who he has wanted. It’s his team now and he’ll be judged from now on by the performances.
“I’m not making excuses for anything that has gone on before because it has been really disappointing, particularly at home.
“People have seen it for themselves – we’ve been awful. We’ve looked at times like headless chickens on the park.
“I didn’t sleep for two nights after the 2-1 defeat against St Mirren. It looked as if the players hadn’t met each other before.
“Player selection is the most important part of the club and it was very obvious we didn’t have it right at the start of the season.
“And it has been difficult for the manager to put it right because he took in a number of free transfer signings who weren’t playing football – and that tells a story – and we had to get them fit and gel them. Some were successful, some weren’t.”
County have signed 26 players this season and MacGregor admits the constantly revolving door has been far from ideal.
MacGregor is desperate to achieve a settled squad, and reckons County should look no further than Highland rivals Caley Thistle, third in the Premiership, for inspiration.
MacGregor added: “We’re still in a transition phase of short-term contracts and we’ve got to get out of that, because that is not a sustainable position.
“We need to look for continuity, for two and three-year contracts. We can see where Scottish football in this window is. Teams are looking to give long-term contracts to younger players.
“We have to learn. Our near-neighbours have got it right in what they did and how they got continuity.
“They were further ahead in the Premier League, then they went back, but somewhere along the line they got a strategy that worked.
“I’m not sure the Ross County strategy will be identical to that, but we do have to think a lot deeper and a lot harder than short-term contracts.”