He said: "The club is in a difficult situation, but the players have to concentrate on picking points up.
"There's nothing they can do about anything else. Once they go onto the field it shouldn't be hard for them to focus. They're playing a game they love.
"But the stress is there. You don't notice it as much on the training pitch, but you notice it when they are playing football.
"Before I came into this position I watched a lot of home games this year and you could see there is a lot of tension there.
"I can understand how some of them might feel about the situation, but they've got to get over that.
"I've said in the past we can't afford to feel sorry for ourselves. The players just have to get on with it.''