Bemused Steven Gerrard has demanded his Aston Villa stars 'wake up' after defeat to Watford made it three games without a win.
Gerrard had got off to a flying start after leaving Rangers but his team is enduring a nightmare 2022 so far.
Their 1-0 win over Everton last month remains their only success since 14 December and they are slowly slipping down the table.
And defeat to Newcastle last weekend was followed by a shock home loss to Watford that left them 12th in the table.
Gerrard insisted last week that Villa weren't secure of their Premier League status yet and they now sit just nine points ahead of the drop-zone - and 12 off the European spots.
And speaking after the Watford defeat a furious Gerrard revealed he had an "honest" talk with his stars after the game.
He's demanded they "wake up fast" to avoid being sucked into a relegation dogfight.
Gerrard said: “My reaction is not too much different to last week. I am really frustrated and disappointed in the performance and result.
“We have lacked quality in the final third, that is for sure. I have had a really honest conversation with the players. We need to wake up and wake up fast because our recent form and performances are way short of what is needed to move up this table.
“We got into a lot of good areas today. We had a lot of the ball and the game panned out as we thought it would, with us needing to force the breakthrough.
“But we have lacked quality in the final third. We have only managed one shot on target out of 20 which is not good enough. That responsibility falls on me and my staff and we will have to take whatever comes our way.”
