Newcastle United midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum says the Magpies deserved the criticism they received as they dropped back into the Premier League relegation zone.
Steve McClaren's side found themselves under fire after heavy defeats to Leicester City and Crystal Palace sent them back into the bottom three after they thought they had turned a corner with their 1-0 victory at Bournemouth.
However, they produced a determined performance to beat Liverpool 2-0 at St James' Park on Sunday for their third win of the campaign, although they still remain in the drop zone.
Wijnaldum told nufcTV after the game: "Of course it's hard, criticism is always hard to get, but a lot of the criticism, to my mind, was right because we didn't have good performances.
"You can lose games, but the way we were losing games was really bad because the performance was not good and we didn't do it as a team.
"I don't want to say that everyone wasn't giving their all - I think everyone did - but we didn't do it as a team. If everyone plays their own game, then it is difficult to win the game.
"But we have learnt from that and today, we did it differently. We fought as a team and fought to get the points, and that's why it's a big win."