Louis van Gaal admits he is feeling "lousy" about Manchester United's low Premier League points total this season, but remains adamant he is the man to turn the club's fortunes around.
United have only taken 13 points from their first 10 league games and have made their worst start to a campaign since 1986-87, when Ron Atkinson was sacked and replaced by Sir Alex Ferguson.
But Van Gaal, who spent 152 million pounds on six new signings in the summer, believes the Red Devils' injury problems are behind their faltering form.
He said in a news conference: "I'm feeling lousy for everyone that we have 13 points from 10 games. When I want to select the same lineup, I cannot. It's the same every week
"I feel for the fans and also the board because they have belief in me, my staff, and my players. [With] 13 points from 10 matches, you are not doing well, but we are in a process.
"As I have said from the beginning, even when we won five games in the United States [in preseason], the process shall take more than one year. It shall take three years, I hope, though that is dependent on lots of things. But I think we will make it happen, that we will win a lot of matches.
"I have the experience that people have great belief in what we are doing now, in the way we are playing football. When I am in the streets I am surrounded by very positive things, and when I'm in a car from United, there are lots of positive people."
Van Gaal also defended his much-criticised defence and argued that, apart from an aberration in the 5-3 defeat at Leicester, the club's record is respectable.
He added: "I don't agree with your opinion of the defence. If you don't count the five goals at Leicester, we have better than Chelsea I believe. That's not the problem, the balance is. That is why I have remodelled the structure of my team. Now I have to solve the problems of the injuries every week, that's another story."