Slaven Bilic admitted the buck stops with him after West Ham plunged further into crisis with a 3-0 home defeat by Southampton.
The Hammers are rooted in the bottom three after four straight Premier League defeats in which they have conceded a total of 14 goals.
Even captain Mark Noble branded their defending "laughable'' after goals from Charlie Austin, Dusan Tadic and James Ward-Prowse condemned West Ham to their worst start to a season since 2002, when they went on to be relegated.
At least there was none of the crowd trouble which has marred their previous outings at their new London Stadium home -- but then the stands were virtually empty when the final whistle blew.