Sydney Roosters halfback Mitchell Pearce says it's his job to turn the fortunes of the struggling NRL club around.

Last year's grand finalists are 2-5 to start 2011, and travel to Skilled Park on Saturday to take on an equally desperate Gold Coast.

With Todd Carney out of the picture for the time being at least, Pearce says it's his responsibility to ensure the Roosters jump back into the mix at the top of the table.

"I want to improve this year. We haven't had the best start to the season and it's in my hands to change that, no one else," said Pearce, who may also need a few strong performances to secure his NSW No.7 jersey.

"It hasn't been the perfect start and there's things I want to definitely improve, and definitely pick up in my game, but I'm not stressing too much about it.

"I know what I need to improve on for myself and the team so I've just got to keep doing that."

Pearce admits Carney's injury and disciplinary absences haven't helped his own start to the season but is offering no excuses.

With Braith Anasta looking like he'll settle in for a while as his partner at five-eighth, Pearce says the Roosters can take confidence from their effort against the Dragons on Anzac Day and get their mojo back before Carney returns.

"I think our energy and attitude last week was really good ... it was a massive effort from us last week and I think if we played like that in the first six weeks we would have had maybe a few different results," he said.

"With Toddy missing since the start of the season ... we've had to change a few things and just put that out (on the field) until Toddy gets healthy again and build on something each week instead of having to change every week.

"I don't want to overplay my hand and try and fill in for what Toddy's doing ... I think Braith's been around and had more experience than anyone so we'll keep working together ... then when Toddy gets right he'll be a great x-factor coming back in for us."

The Roosters star halfback believes the team's start to this season isn't drastically worse than their beginning to the last one.

By round eight in 2010, even they'd lost three games, they'd all been savage beatings by Canterbury, Penrith and St George Illawarra.

However, Pearce concedes losing to the Titans, who are in a similar predicament, would make things tough.

"It's not too late now but it certainly is a massive game for us this week and it's must-win," he said.

"If we want to be any threat in this comp we've got to back up this week. The Dragons, every week play like that and every week they win pretty much.

"We started last season pretty similar to how we have this year.

"That's not something we want to be like but it just shows it's not dead and buried yet, nowhere near that."

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