Building up the guys after a series of poor results isn't easy, of course. I faced a similar situation in 1988 leading England into a Test match - also in Nottingham - against a West Indies team that had whitewashed us 5-0 in our previous two series and were widely expected to do the same again.
I remember getting the team together and saying something like: "Look, this is 11 against 11. Forget the reputations, if we bowl a good line with discipline and catch it when they nick one then they're back in the dressing room like anyone else."
The same goes for batting - stick to the basics. We didn't need to score our runs as quickly as Viv Richards or Gordon Greenidge then and we don't need to score as quickly as Michael Slater and Gilchrist now, because 300 off 120 overs counts the same as 300 off 60.
We went on to draw that Test in 1988 but then found our momentum and confidence undermined by events off the field and lost the remaining four matches.
I can pinpoint exactly where the wheels came off the bandwagon this year. It wasn't when we lost eight wickets in that final session of the Second Test against Pakistan - it was a couple of hours earlier.
I don't know what was said during lunch at Old Trafford, but from being in a position to pull off a record-breaking run chase and clinch a fifth successive series win we suddenly lost our way and stopped playing positive cricket.
It would have been much better for morale to have gone down fighting but a defensive afternoon session was followed by a crushing defeat and England's momentum has never returned.
When your confidence is low all the little niggles start to feel worse. Injuries like Nasser Hussain's seem to take longer to heal, Graham Thorpe discovers a tiny fracture and what was going on with Ashley Giles last week is anyone's guess.
How a centrally contracted player can apparently be fit enough to play for his county but not for England is beyond me unless, of course, he already had a date for his Achilles operation and coach Duncan Fletcher had agreed to the games he can play until then.
