New Reading manager Nigel Adkins believes togetherness is the key to Premier League survival as he takes charge for the first time this weekend.
The former Southampton boss replaced Brian McDermott at the Madejski Stadium this week, with the club seven points from safety, and faces a tricky first test when they travel to Arsenal on Saturday.
Adkins believes they need to move on quickly from McDermott’s departure if they are to mount a serious fight for survival, but said the players will find it difficult.
"It's always the way," he told reporters. "I know with Brian they would have been very close, they've been very successful here at Reading.
"But we've all moved on, I'm in charge now and we've got to be together.
"The reaction I've had on the training ground and the meeting this morning, it was very good, very interactive which was what I wanted.
"Everything was very positive today so I was pleased about that."
Adkins was praised for installing a positive style of play at Southampton, guiding them to two successive promotions before being sacked in January.
The 48-year-old admitted, however, that the key is to get results and ensure their top-flight status before making any changes.
"It's going to have to take a period of time, you can't change everything straight away," he said.
"We want the lads to go and pass the football - that's what we've always gone and done - but we've got to make sure we keep doing what we've done well here at Reading.
"There's ways to communicate it. We've had a good team meeting, we've been on the training ground, we'll have a good training session tomorrow again, so it's (about) slowly introducing things because you can just overload players totally, but we'll introduce it gradually.
"But obviously the mindset is we've got a great game at the weekend against Arsenal and we've got to have a mentality to go and win the game."
