Gennaro Gattuso said he was "worried and scared" as Napoli fell 2-0 at home to Fiorentina on Saturday leaving last season's Serie A runners-up scrambling to save their season.
A third consecutive defeat saw the southern giants slump to 13th position as they sit closer to the relegation zone than the Champions League places.
Napoli are without a league win at their San Paolo Stadium since October 19 ahead of hosting Barcelona in the Champions League in a month's time.
For Gattuso the "soulless, unwatchable and embarrassing" defeat was his fourth in five league games since replacing Carlo Ancelotti on December 11, with the club then in seventh spot.
"I'm very worried," admitted the 42-year-old former AC Milan coach.
"We have hit rock bottom and we need to understand what we are going towards.
"We're not looking at the Champions League, we're looking at the scary ranking. We're playing with fire."
"We only did a little bit in the first 20-25 minutes, then we were unwatchable. We tickled the opponents, without competitive fury."
"I was convinced that we would have a great performance today but I saw a team that did the opposite of what we had prepared."
- Lockdown fury -
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"I've played football with some really irritating people, but I always gave what I had on the pitch, even for those I didn't like."