Real Madrid midfielder James Rodriguez says the players had to take a long hard look at themselves and improve their mental strength after losing two of the first three league games this season.
Los Blancos have won the last 10 games in all competitions, and lie just a point behind Barcelona in La Liga following Saturday’s 3-1 win over their arch-rivals. But it wasn’t that long ago that the 10-time winners of the Champions League were stuttering along, losing to Real Sociedad and Atletico de Madrid.
In an interview with Cadena Ser, the Colombian said the players were at a loss to explain the two defeats having dominated large parts of both games. And they had to improve their mental strength to get back on track quickly.
Speaking about the game at Anoeta, when Los Blancos blew a 2-0 lead to lose 4-2, James said: “It was a very odd game, which was controlled and there are no explanations for what happened. The atmosphere afterwards was strange, hard. Of course, that’s normal…they always want to win here, but I was calm, I just wanted to work hard every day in training and improve.”
And about the loss at home to Diego Simeone’s side, he added: “We have players with a winning spirit, that always want to win, always want to compete…It’s true that from that point on, the team changed.”
