Alan Pardew admits Crystal Palace are in crisis ahead of Southampton match

• Manager under pressure after six straight defeats in Premier League
• ‘I have got to make sure the next result is a positive one for us’

Alan Pardew has conceded his future at Crystal Palace is dependent upon arresting the side’s dismal recent form and admitted the club themselves are in crisis before Saturday’s pivotal visit of Southampton to Selhurst Park.

Palace have lost their last six league games and hover outside the relegation zone only on goal difference, with the playing and coaching staff having spent this week attempting to recover from the shock of their chaotic 5-4 defeat at Swansea City. Pardew held clear-the-air talks with his players and has spoken with the chairman, Steve Parish, to leave him acutely aware patience is wearing thin. The club’s co-owners – the American businessmen David Blitzer and Josh Harris – are anxious to protect their investment and Sam Allardyce is available as a potential replacement.

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“The chairman and the board here have been fantastically supportive,” said Pardew. “This is a great football club and one they have great plans for, but it’s in crisis at the moment, a kind of mini-crisis, and we need to get through that. The work they’ve done, what they want to do going forward, all bodes well. But we have to get past this period. He just really wants to see us putting the effort on the pitch at a level where we can get a result.”

Asked if he had been told his job hinges upon getting a positive result against Southampton, Pardew said: “No, but I’m a realist. I understand the situation. I have got to make sure the next result is a positive one for us. That pressure I will put on myself. I have to get results. Steve and I always have meetings, and we speak almost every day. That relationship is strong. Obviously Josh and David are based in New York, I don’t have too much contact, only through Steve. Steve relays the fears of the whole group – we have a lot of other investors – and of course they’re worried. They want us to get a result. It’s a business.”

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The Americans are aware of Allardyce’s standing and achievements in the game, and of his desire to return to top-flight management, and the board would be prepared to act swiftly if Palace are condemned to another loss this weekend. The hierarchy are conscious, too, of the credentials of the Wales manager, Chris Coleman, the former England head coach Roy Hodgson and Roberto Mancini, who left Internazionale in August. Palace travel to Hull City, one of the few clubs below them, next Saturday.

Pardew held talks with his players at their Beckenham training complex this week after seeing four goals shipped at set pieces and a 4-3 lead surrendered in stoppage time at Swansea. “Some of the conversations I had were calm but assertive,” he said. “Some situations at training have been tense and aggressive, as you would imagine. The end result of that will be our performance on Saturday. The group have been fairly honest in their own failings at times. There are one or two situations where our centre-halves have been beaten man-to-man and we are not usually like that. There has been a bit of honesty about that, and a determination to put that right.”

Asked if those frank discussions had revealed problems or potential solutions that he, as manager, had not previously acknowledged, Pardew added: “Of course. I am a football manager, I can sense situations, but if you’re a player on the pitch you feel a game differently. So I listen to my players. I can understand that, on the pitch, the sense of what we’re doing with set plays isn’t feeling right, so yeah, I listen to that. Also, as meticulous as I can be, I have been giving too much information to the team: covering this player, that player, what we should do at this or that situation. So we’ve given them less detail on the whiteboard and in our team meetings than I usually do in a bid to free them up a bit.

“We’ve had to approach the whole week in a different way after Swansea. But I remain convinced there is a strength of character in that group. They have had bad days before, and some as bad as Swansea, and have come back strong. Stronger, actually. I expect some of those characters to come through again.”

Pardew’s preparations have been hampered by the loss of Connor Wickham to knee ligament damage for the rest of the season, which leaves Palace light up front, a situation the manager would hope to address in the January window if he is still in charge.

The France goalkeeper Steve Mandanda is out for four to six weeks after his knee locked up in training this week, though Palace have not given up hope that Pape Souaré, who broke his leg in a car crash in September, will play again. There is no timeframe, however, as to when the Senegal international may return to fitness.