Real woe down to overconfidence, blasts Perez

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has accused his expensively-assembled side of taking Liga matches for granted after another weekend slip-up. "We have started too relaxed and with too much confidence - which is bad," he said.

Alaves held the Bernabeu all-stars to a goalless draw on Sunday, leaving them way off the pace in 16th spot.

And Perez stormed: "To win La Liga you have to work every matchday. We're not moving well in the championship. We haven't had luck with injuries and international call-ups. But why not admit it? We're playing with an excess of confidence."

Perez nonetheless defended world-record signing Zinedine Zidane, whose slow start has prompted severe criticism.

"Zidane has had two bad months because of media pressure and he needs another two months to find his feet. We're convinced that he will be profitable on a sporting and economic level," said Perez.

The 54-year-old construction tycoon also revealed that Real have a major sports marketing venture in the pipeline between now and the end of the year.

"There are more than 100 million Real Madrid supporters worldwide, but the club has never been able to transform the passion of its supporters into money," lamented Perez.

"Our model has been Manchester United and between now and the end of the year we will work with our supplier Adidas to launch our own Real Madrid label globally."

"We have more than 200 individual projets and are going to launch a network of franchise distribution throughout the world."