Real fail the commitment test after latest defeat

Real Madrid coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo has hit out at his team's attitude after their second Primera Liga defeat in four days.

Real lost 3-1 at Deportivo Coruna on Wednesday and some of their players have admitted they lacked the necessary commitment.

"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 overrun by a Deportivo side who had not won in six games but were determined to defend their 14-year unbeaten home run against the side from the capital.

The result left Real fifth in the table on 15 points after four defeats in their nine Primera Liga games so far.

Canadian midfielder Julian de Guzman opened the scoring when he drilled in from the edge of the area in the 34th minute and defender Juanma took advantage of some dreadful Real defending to head in a second before the break.

The Depor centre back repeated the trick six minutes from time and although Real Madrid skipper Raul pulled one back soon after it did little to disguise one of his team's worst performances of the season.

Real were missing leading scorer Ronaldo, fellow Brazilian Julio Baptista and French midfielder Zinedine Zidane, but Luxemburgo said the absences could not be used to justify his side's 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."

In the absence of several of their leading players, Real had pulled out all the stops to make sure David Beckham played in the Depor game, winning an appeal against the red card given to the midfielder for clapping a referee's decision in their defeat by Valencia.

But Luxemburgo admitted his disappointment at Beckham's contribution had persuaded him to replace the England captain early in the second half.

"I decided to substitute him because he wasn't playing well. He had a poor first half and I presume he was feeling in a bit of pain."

Real's Uruguayan international midfielder Pablo Garcia said he was concerned by the team's lack of commitment.

"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."

Deportivo coach Joaquin Caparros, on the other hand, said he could not praise his team's efforts highly enough.

"The team played magnificently in both attack and defence. The first half was brilliant, we scored two goals, defended well up the pitch and Real didn't have any chances at all. I take my hat off to all the Depor players."