Former Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood has questioned the players' commitment after the side went down 6-0 to Liverpool on Sunday.
The Premier League's basement side were humiliated by Jurgen Klopp's visitors in Birmingham to leave them eight points adrift of safety with just 12 games of the season remaining.
Sherwood took over at Villa in February 2015 but was sacked just eight months later, yet he says that he never saw a performance quite that bad during his tenure.
"All I can tell the Villa fans is that in the 10 games I was there I never labelled that at the team - commitment," Sherwood told Match of the Day 2.
"They always showed good commitment - that wasn't a problem. They showed commitment all of the time. Today was very disappointing for Aston Villa fans.
"There's 36,000 turned up there today. They're bottom of the league. They're a fantastically supported club and it's not looking good."
Despite the club's perilous plight, Villans manager Remi Garde has insisted that he is still confident of beating the drop.