The under-pressure Owls head coach has previously been happy to protect his players and take the brunt of criticism following the club’s underwhelming start to the season, but believes that his squad must now front up and rediscover some mental resolve in the weeks ahead to propel themselves into the top-six reckoning.

Following his side’s outstanding and vibrant Championship victory over Leeds United just prior to the international break, the Portuguese admits that he was perplexed to see his team produce such a passive display in losing 2-1 at basement club Bolton Wanderers last weekend.

That loss represented the Owls’ third defeat in four matches and continued the club’s poor sequence of results against the current bottom four, which has seen the club fail to win in four matches and take a paltry two points from a possible 12.

Carvalhal, whose side visit Derby County tomorrow, said: “It is important to know and ask internal questions why things change in a few days.

“It is not about the opponent. We respect all the clubs. The answers must be in ourselves and I give some responsibility to the players about that.

“It cannot be about quality because some days before we put in a fantastic performance against one of the strongest teams in the competition like Leeds.

“We have a problem in our hands so we try to find answers. We have some answers now and we must be more mentally strong.

“It is strange because we do very well against the strong teams but against the weak teams we break the mentality.”

Partway through his third season at Hillsborough, Carvalhal’s future has come increasingly under the microscope in recent weeks, with sections of the club’s sell-out 4,700 travelling contingent singing: ‘We Want Carlos Out’ towards the end of Saturday’s deflating defeat at Bolton.

The defiant 51-year-old insists that he has never considered his future, despite criticism from a growing number of supporters and is paying no credence to any reports surrounding his position either, while retaining complete confidence that there is plenty of time for the 12th-placed Owls to transform their fortunes.

If anything, Carvalhal believes that his desire to see the job through and secure promotion at the third time of asking has been fortified by recent events.

The Owls chief has also revealed that his previous experiences at one of his former clubs in Vitoria de Setubal when he led the club to Portugal’s top division in the wake of vociferous early-season dissent has provided him with something of a template to follow.

He said: “The last time I had this kind of experience was in Vitoria de Setubal. They were in the second division and I had a period like that, but we promoted the team. It was a good sign.

“I had 5,000 fans screaming my name, saying ‘Carlos go home, Carlos go home.’ After this, we reacted very well and got promoted.

“The president called me the next day and said to me ‘what do you need to get promoted.’

“I just said ‘pay one month’s salary to the players’ and He asked me if I need something and I said we maybe need two or three days camp to put everyone together and focused.

“And after this, we promoted the team to the first division,” he added.

“It is nothing new to me. These are hard situations but the big personalities deal with it. Everything is fine and happy in the easy days. Everybody says very nice words to you. In the bad moments, we see the men and personalities.”

Adamant he has never considered his future either, Carvalhal, whose side are four points behind sixth-placed Leeds United, added: “No. Absolutely not.

“They are rumours and I understand rumours as we are not winning. I believe eight to 10 clubs who are down near us have big expectations to get promoted. All of them have the same problem.

“It is a very hard competition but we know our value and we will go up. We know what we can do. I believe we will be promoted this season.

“We have worked hard this week and we know victories can change things. When we don’t win, things are more complicated and the fans stay unhappy. We are also not happy, but we believe we will be out of this position.

“It is a very hard competition and there are teams with the same expectations. We are not far away from the first positions so we have plenty of time to recover.

“This is the time for the players to stand up and say we are here and we must be more consistent.”

Carvalhal has revealed that he will be without George Boyd for a number of weeks, with the ex-Burnley player recently undergoing a second shoulder operation, although Jordan Rhodes (ankle) could return to action next weekend.

Carvalhal challenges Owls players