Angry Andy Robertson admitted Scotland's standards have dropped as the nation fell to defeat against the Netherlands.
The loss takes the winless run for Steve Clarke's side to six matches.
And the Scotland captain pulled no punches as he stated in no uncertain terms that levels had slipped in recent outings.
Robertson absolved team-mates of misses in front of goal as he insisted the defensive collapse in the closing stages was unacceptable.
On Viaplay, he said: "What we can't do, the 11 of us, is open up as we did because that is not what we are based on. And that's a collective thing.
"When you go to major tournaments you have to be a lot better than that.
READ MORE: McGinn taking Scotland positives despite 'embarrassing' scoreline
"The last six games we have dropped our standards, it's as simple as that. Yes, we have played tough nations, pot ones, but if you want to be able to do anything at major tournaments then you have to compete with them.
"We need to get back to winning ways and get the confidence in front of goal again, get the confidence in clean sheets again. It needs to start quickly."
Clearly gutted after the nightmare conclusion to a promising display in the Netherlands, Robertson said of his immediate reaction: "Anger, disappointment. You can't come away to these big teams and play the way we did.
"We have to take a lot of heart from the first 60/70 minutes but a football game is over 90 minutes and we have completely opened up at the end.
"The fact that we have walked off that pitch 4-0 is unbelievable, it's impossible for it to happen. We can't keep doing this and going into our old ways against the big teams."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here