While Shamrock Rovers' winless start to the SSE Airtricity League season has raised a few eyebrows, St Patrick's Athletic have also endured a shaky time.
After a win and a draw from their opening two games, Tim Clancy's side had a weekend to forget, losing 5-0 at Dundalk on Friday before succumbing to a 2-1 loss at a Sligo Rovers team that was down to ten men for 70 minutes on Monday night.
Clancy described the defending as "mind-boggling" and "baffling" when he spoke to LOI TV after the latter game.
With in-form Bohemians visiting Richmond Park this Friday, former Saints player and manager Johnny McDonnell feels a return to basics is necessary to put Pat's back on the right track.
"Conceding five goals is a knock to your confidence and then to travel away up to Sligo on the Monday night, you'd want your next game to be at home," he told the RTÉ Soccer Podcast.
"But to go up to Sligo and concede the goals the way they did against the ten men - Sligo looked like they had a lot of the play - it's just a lack of confidence around the group.
"They need to reboot, they need to sit down and start the season now."
McDonnell felt the performances in the points gained so far, a draw with Derry City and 1-0 win over Shelbourne, were not overly impressive.
"I watched them against Shels and they were lucky to get the winner. Shels should have got something out of the game. The late goal against Derry as well," he said.
"They've had a rocky start. But sometimes you just have to knuckle down and do the basics and make sure as a player that you win your own battle around the pitch to do the best for the team.
"But to go up to Dundalk, and the little bit of history there with Stephen (O'Donnell) leaving Pat's and going to Dundalk, that definitely would have hurt and definitely would have hurt the owner of the club. Bad, bad defeat and I watched the goals, the set-pieces that they conceded from, second balls, just not defending till the end, not doing the basic things right.
"Sometimes that's down to the players and their responsibility to make the right decisions and sometimes with a lack of confidence, you need leaders and that's what you need around the club.
"You need leaders around the team. (Joe) Redmond is the captain at Pat's and is a young player. Is it fair on a young player like that to have all that pressure on his shoulders? It looks like he's going to be a decent player.
"So you need leaders around the pitch, not just one. You need them all over the place."
But McDonnell is confident that they will climb up the table from their current third-from-bottom berth.
"I think they should be okay but it's not going too well for them at the moment," he said.
"To be down the bottom end of the table and already conceded eight goals, albeit five against Dundalk, but to go up to Sligo, you'd have wanted to tighten things up and make sure to come away with a result, nil-all preferably or a 1-0. That was the way to bounce back."
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