Pierre Sage insisted he believes his players and staff remain behind him despite Crystal Palace's 2-0 home defeat to Newcastle, extending their winless run to four games.
The Eagles were soundly beaten at Selhurst Park, failing to bounce back from last weekend's 5-0 loss at Brighton. An 11-minute double from Newcastle shortly after half-time sealed Palace's fate, with the first goal coming barely a minute after the restart following Sage's half-time team talk.
A fifth of Palace's goals conceded this season have come in the first 10 minutes, including three in the heavy defeat at the Amex Stadium. When asked whether he thought he retained the belief of his players and the club hierarchy, Sage replied: "Yes. I think they do [believe in me]."
Sage led Lens to their first French Cup last season and a Ligue 1 runners-up spot, but has struggled to adapt to the Premier League. Palace sit just two points ahead of bottom side Sunderland with eight games gone. The Frenchman admitted he expected a better start but insisted things would improve given time.
"I always expected to do better," he said. "Football is an imperfect game, there's a lot of mistakes - players and coaches. It's always a frustration if you don't achieve the perfect thing."
"In my position, I just have to create the conditions to be close to perfection with the team in concentration, defending well, attacking well."
"After that, this kind of decision of what we are speaking about is to the chairman and owners. For me, the noise around the team and club is only noise."
Source: Sky Sports Champions League · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing