Atletico Madrid captain Gabi Fernandez has claimed that the club are in the midst of their biggest crisis since manager Diego Simeone took charge five years ago.
Atletico are currently 12 points behind La Liga leaders Real Madrid after picking up just one league win since October 29, with the 3-0 reverse to Villareal on Sunday the latest in a long line of poor results.
As a result, Simeone's men have fallen to sixth position in the league standings after 15 matches - a far cry from earlier in the season, when they topped the division thanks to an eight game unbeaten spell between the opening day of the campaign and October 15.
In an interview with Spanish radio station Cadena Ser, Fernandez revealed he considered the current run of form to be the club's most difficult spell since Simeone was appointed on December 23 2011.
He said: "We've had five successful years but this is our most difficult time. Now we are going to see if we are truly a team and if we are capable of pulling out of this situation."
Atletico had harboured hopes of ending Real's and Barcelona's dominance in Spain's top flight once more after toppling Spain's two giants in 2013/14 - the first club to do so since Valencia won the crown a decade earlier.
Simeone has reached his limit and has taken Atletico Madrid as far as they can get. His move to Inter next season is so predictable.
However, those aspirations have taken a serious knock during a sequence of results that has yielded four losses in the last seven, and Fernandez is of the opinion that Los Rojiblancos now face an uphill task to secure a second league title in four seasons.
He continued: "It has become an uphill task. Things have gone south.
"What is clear is that what we have done so far is not enough to win games and we have to work harder. We can't focus on long-term plans, now more than ever, we have to grab on to Simeone's stance of one game at a time."
Part of Atletico's success in recent seasons has been their defensive resolve, but the Vicente Calderon stadium-based side have shipped 11 goals in that seven-match domestic run, and the 33-year-old Fernandez added that he and his team mates needed to improve at both ends of the pitch if they wanted to finish high up in the league come the season's end.
He said: "We must rediscover our defensive solidity which has been our fortress in the past. We need to be more united than ever to defend. In terms of our attack, we need to make the most of our chances which we have struggled to do lately.
"Simeone tells us that the only way to overcome adversity is through work. We need a clean slate mentally in order to return as soon as possible to be that ambitious team that is hungry for wins."
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Atletico Madrid have made their worst start to a full season under Diego Simeone - previous worst was 32pts in 14-15 pic.twitter.com/KCTUBUNmi5