Bit facetious this. No-one is talking 'head between the knees, breathing into a paper bag' panic. We're talking about at what point do we get genuinely concerned about the direction this season is taking.
It was a long time ago now, but my memory of the 1994 season was one of 'yep, we're doing pretty badly but we'll figure it out and get out of this mess', until sure enough, with a couple of games to go, we're right down there still and the realisation that we might go down finally sets in. In fact, it was probably only at 2-0 that many genuinely tuned in and thought 'Christ, we're gonna get relegated!'.
Therefore we do not want to sleepwalk into a situation remotely resembling that. That is the 'panic' being referred to here. Things are on the slide, and it doesn't look good, and they don't seem to be being addressed by RM. We have plenty of tough games coming up in the next 3 weeks. Results, and performances, need to pick up, fast.