Younes Kaboul is confident an early crisis meeting will see Sunderland surge up the table.
Manager Dick Advocaat, 67, ordered his Black Cat flops in for a heated clear-the-air exchange of views after they kicked off the new campaign with back-to-back defeats.
Kaboul, 29, said: "The boss told us we needed to believe in ourselves and that you have to give everything - the maximum - to get results.
"We all had our say, of course.
"Anyone who could say anything to make us better said it.
"I spoke and I was very happy to see that the players could all talk to each other candidly - as every team needs to do that when you are losing games.
"The boss did it to get our spirits back up.
"He is managing us very well."