Real Madrid coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo has lashed out at his players following their second Primera Liga defeat in four days.
Real lost 3-1 at Deportivo Coruna on Wednesday and Luxemburgo believes the players’ attitude was questionable.
“We knew that Deportivo would come at us, but we can’t just stand there and wait for them,” said the Brazilian coach.
“We should have pressured them more and tried to go on the attack. We lacked attitude and should have tried harder.”
Real, beaten 2-1 at home by Valencia on Sunday, were comfortably dispatched by a Deportivo side who had not won in six games.
Real were missing leading scorer Ronaldo, fellow Brazilian Julio Baptista, midfielder Zinedine Zidane, and defender Michael Salgado, but Luxemburgo said their absences could not excuse the poor display.
“The missing players cannot be used as an excuse by a team like Real Madrid,” he said. “We have to try more things. Real Madrid can’t play for the first 65 minutes the way we did.”
Real’s Uruguayan international midfielder Pablo Garcia said he the team’s lack of commitment was a concern.
“I don’t mind losing when your team has given it their all, but we can’t lose games this way,” he said.
“We are all old enough to know what we should be doing and if we play like this we won’t win anything. We have to be prepared to put our foot in.
“It’s no good passing the ball from side to side, you have to do more than that. They wanted it and they did all the running and sweating.”
