"We played an identical formation here as we did against Aston Villa," he said.
"We played 4-2-4, which does make you more vulnerable defensively. But we chose that because it worked at Villa.
"In the second half, when we went 2-1 down we have to work at that. We needed to offer resistance, but the whole team dropped down.
"It comes down to character, surviving, being able to stand up and coach each other."
"We must restore one position of the pitch, which, for example, was in the midfield at Stevenage," he said.
"We played with Thompson, Noble and Aborah and that meant we could counter some of the defensive vulnerability.
"They were there at Huddersfield and from then on they have fallen away either through injury or disciplinary mistakes.
"We are not in a position where we have players in reserve who can bring the same level of input like Noble and Aborah provide.
"But Swerts (Gill) did a good job to be honest. Burkey (Graham) is a little bit vulnerable defensively but he was one of our best players to be honest.
"I must ask myself is four strikers too much and three strikers better."
Notts County are now 20th in the league and the boss admitted that it does not look good but at the same time he feels nobody should get carried away at this early stage.
"The players cannot let themselves go crazy at being in 20th position," he said.
"It's still very early in the season. Everything is so tight, but something has to click in our heads. For example, we can't be injured or have no red cards because it has a big effect on us.
"When you miss three or four key players you feel their absence. We are a lot better than this.
"We need results and we need consistency and we need fit players. Izale McLeod, for example, is not fit.
"At the back we had four fit central defenders who were all more than 1m 90cm, but it's more about the mentality than anything else.
"To win this league means giving 200 per cent to help each other and defensive discipline.
"There is the pain that we are trying to change. Sometimes characters are not easy to change and maybe we will have to strengthen ourselves with leader types."