Zinedine Zidane complained of Real Madrid’s inconsistency after his side lost their unbeaten LaLiga record to Real Mallorca and top spot to Barcelona.
Real suffered a shock 1-0 defeat at promoted Mallorca and had full-back Alvaro Odriozola sent off 17 minutes from time.
Lago Junior’s superb seventh-minute strike – his first in LaLiga – settled the contest to cap a thoroughly miserable day for Real.
Barcelona had leapfrogged them earlier on Saturday with a 3-0 win at Eibar and now hold a one-point advantage over Real after nine games.
“The problem is that every three days we have to prove that we’re a good side,” Real manager Zidane said at his post-match press conference.
“That’s our problem and it’s what we’re not doing. We need to have more continuity.
“We did some things well, to be honest. But, in truth, we can’t play a game like that.
“I’m not going to tell you I’m concerned, but we need to have more continuity.
“We need to bring a bit more life to our play if we want to achieve big things this year.”
Although Real had won five and drawn three of their opening eight league games, they have struggled in Europe this season.
Real lost their Champions League opener 3-0 to Paris St Germain before being held 2-2 at home by Belgian outsiders Club Brugge.
Their latest setback came with Gareth Bale, Luka Modric and Toni Kroos all sidelined by injury and Eden Hazard missing after his wife gave birth.
Karim Benzema struck the crossbar in the first half but Real were running out of ideas when they were reduced to 10 men by Odriozola’s second yellow card.
“Injuries are part of football. We had other players and they need to do better,” Zidane said.
“Having players out is the circumstances we face and we have to overcome that.
“There are other players, who are good. We need to show that every player has the ability to play here.
“We didn’t play the game we wanted. When we start a game the way we started this one it makes it tough.
“They scored, then they sat back and we couldn’t find the solution.
“We need to analyse it properly. We can’t be happy with the match.”
Real return to Champions League action on Tuesday with a trip to Galatasaray in Turkey.
“We know what we’re playing for,” Zidane said.
“We need to play to win because there’s no other option there. We need to focus on winning on Tuesday.”
Mallorca’s third win of the season took them out of the relegation zone and in to 14th place.
Goalkeeper Manolo Reina had few serious saves to make, even though Mallorca had to defend for long periods.
