The Blues extended their winless streak to seven league matches with a poor 3-0 defeat at Hartlepool on Friday night. Southend's latest result saw them slide to 14th in the League One and they are now 10 points behind a place in the play-offs.
Captain Adam insists the time has come to toughen up.
Speaking to the Southend Evening Echo he said: "I'm fed up with the way things are going for us and we've become too nice for teams to play against. We're too soft and easy to open up and sides are easily counter attacking us. We are giving the ball away in bad areas and we need to tighten up. We also need to get back to being nasty and horrible to face. We had that last season but it isn't there now and we're really hurting at the moment. We're not stupid and we know that we could easily be drawn down towards the teams at the bottom.
Barrett though will have to watch the side put his thoughts into action as he serves a one match suspension for being dismissed in the defeat at Victoria Park. The centre back saw red after being adjudged to have brought down striker Joel Porter when he was clean through on goal.
However, not surprisingly, Adam did not agree with the decision: "It was shoulder to shoulder and I thought it was very soft. I spoke to the referee after the game and he said that he has no choice because I was the last man and their player went down with there being contact between us. I don't agree but I'm fed up having to moan about decisions too."