Marcelo adamant Real Madrid do not have an attitude problem

Marcelo is adamant Real Madrid do not have an attitude problem after they were beaten 1-0 by Villarreal in Sunday's La Liga encounter at El Madrigal.

Roberto Soldado's strike in the eighth minute was enough for Villarreal to secure three points as Madrid failed to capitalise on Barcelona's 2-2 draw with Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday.

And Marcelo insists there is nothing wrong with Madrid's mentality after a run of three defeats from the past five Liga outings.

"It's not an attitude problem. They had more of the ball and performed better than us in the first half - and we paid the price for that," Marcelo told the Madrid website.

"We should have come out of the traps stronger. The league title is at stake. It's not that there was a lack of desire, it's just a case of doing more things like putting the pressure on high up.

"We had the chance to close the gap at the top of the table and we have to take a step back and look at what we did wrong so that it doesn't happen again.

"It's annoying, because we were aware of Barcelona's result and we should have gone out and got the win.

"There is still a long way to go in the league, we have to keep fighting and work on where we went wrong in training to make sure we challenge. We have to pick ourselves up and move on forwards."

The Brazil international was forced off late in the game, but he has stressed his injury was nothing serious.

"It was cramp and I feel okay, it's nothing major," he added.