Boss Ronald Koeman admits Southampton must rebuild their waning confidence as they try to cling on to their European dream.
The Saints have won just once in their last five Premier League games and have failed to score in their last three outings after Saturday's 1-0 defeat at West Brom.
They remain fifth in the table, but Liverpool will go above them on Sunday if they beat Manchester City.
Southampton host Crystal Palace on Tuesday and Koeman insists they have to improve.
"The whole team's form is down on earlier this season. There's a little less confidence than we had, but the best thing for confidence is to win and next Tuesday is important,'' he said.
"I was always realistic. I never thought we'd qualify for the Champions League because a lot of big teams normally fight for that in the table.
"We have to fight for more points than Southampton did last season. We'll play our way and see what happens.
"We have to accept it and keep going. Every game is a difficult one and every team is fighting to win. The problem is going a goal down, it's more difficult.''
Saido Berahino scored after just 70 seconds to win the game and Koeman was forced to make a tactical change, taking off defender Florin Gardos for winger Eljero Elia after just 25 minutes.
But the boss had no regrets over his line-up, despite the slow start which cost them the game.
"If I had to do the line-up again I'd do same. This season we've played two or three times out of this system and won every game,'' he said.
"The players know the system and we have the players to do it, but at 1-0 down we always had three defenders against one attacker and being 1-0 down made it a different game.''