Jose Mourinho says Real Madrid currently lack effort and concentration, and claims he wanted to substitute seven of his players at half-time at Sevilla.
“Sevilla deserved to win, but we deserved even more to lose. Congratulations to Sevilla, they did everything to win. We had our reward – we got what we deserved for the awful match we’ve played,” he mused, in similar fashion to how he spoke after Week 2’s defeat at Getafe.
The Real Madrid boss was asked if Cristiano Ronaldo’s state of mind affected proceedings for Real’s attacking play.
“He had no influence on our performance today. Today’s game has been the same as the ones against Valencia, Getafe and Granada. So I don’t think it has any relation with all the noise of the last two weeks.
“We have a problem with a state of mind. We lack a collective spirit. Only two or three heads are committed, and focused that football is the centre of their lives. We have few compromised minds. But I’m the Coach, therefore this is my fault.
“At the half-time break, I substituted two players [Mesut Ozil and Angel Di Maria] but I wanted to change seven. Football should allow you to make more changes.
“That is not to say that Di Maria or Ozil performed worse than the others who played the full 90 minutes.
“Our problems began in the first minute. We cannot work further or greater on defending set pieces – every man knows his place, what he has to do, we practice it, we have graphs even in the dressing room. First set piece, first goal.
“And that’s the image of my team. No concentration, no mental ability to work, when you compare Sevilla with Real Madrid, it’s easy to point the differences.
“Sevilla’s players fight every ball as if it was the last of their lives, with a perfect aggressiveness… My team did that against Barcelona and they haven’t done it since.”
Barcelona defeated Getafe 4-1 in Madrid earlier this evening, which combined with Real’s defeat, leaves the capital club eight points behind their prominent title rivals, after just four rounds of action.
“My team doesn’t show up at the moment. That’s my problem. Right now, I have no team and that worries me.
“We’ve played badly in the League. I am preoccupied by my team more so than by the points difference with Barcelona.”
