St Kilda coach Ross Lyon says the AFL club's current form slump is not as drastic as results suggest and he is confident it can turn around quickly.

The Saints, who play West Coast at Subiaco on Sunday, have lost three of their past four games, including their most recent against Essendon on Sunday night.

It comes after losing just three of their previous 29 - none of those by more than 12 points - and suggests the long-term injury loss of captain Nick Riewoldt is hitting hard.

But Lyon said there was a tendency for those outside the club to overlook the Saints' deficiencies when they were winning and exaggerate them when they were losing.

And he said the recent losses would also help sharpen the focus of those within the club.

"I think when we do what we did for so long, it's not complacency, but I often say you can win going backwards," Lyon said.

"Gradually we had and obviously it was significant with Nick (being injured in round three) and a few of those things.

"But winning wallpapers over a few of the cracks, so we've been forced to really drill in deep, not that we were complacent, but we feel we've analysed it.

"... We're confident we can improve it again and get back to our old ways."

Lyon said he was mostly happy with the Saints' performance in the 12-point loss to the Bombers.

He said their effort and ball-winning was good, as was their delivery into attack, with enough forward entries and marks within scoring range, but inaccurate kicking for goal cost them.

But he said the major issue was some unusually poor defensive work, allowing the Bombers to counterattack from their own defence too easily several times.

"There was just one common error that we were making, just an overplay and we were quite reckless and it just opened us up four or five times," Lyon said.

"So we've identified that and we'll eradicate that quite simply."

Lyon confirmed the club would be without running player Jason Gram for about a month, as he undergoes surgery to fix a groin problem which has troubled him since early in the season.

But he said the players were looking forward to the trip to Perth.

"We've enjoyed going there, we've had some really good victories, if you go back to `07, Robert Harvey's milestone (350th) game and we had our backs to the wall.

"It's great that we can come together, we're under a bit of pressure, and work our way through it and aim to get the four points."

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