Sergio Ramos thinks it would be "crazy" for Real Madrid to sack Julen Lopetegui despite Los Blancos seeing their winless run stretch to four games with Saturday's 1-0 defeat to Deportivo Alaves.
Madrid are enduring a dismal run, which began with a resounding 3-0 loss at Sevilla on September 26.
They followed that up with a 0-0 draw at home to bitter rivals Atletico Madrid, before back-to-back 1-0 losses to CSKA Moscow and Alaves in the Champions League and LaLiga, respectively, heaped pressure on the coach.
Lopetegui has only been in the job since July after he replaced Zinedine Zidane, but following something of a honeymoon period, he really has hit work cut out.
Although three teams could all go above them on Sunday, Madrid remain joint top for the time being and Ramos thinks it would be a baffling decision to dismiss Lopetegui already.
: "We will fight to the death, it's in our DNA. We have not been getting results, but the goals will come and we will always be fighting for our goals." October 6, 2018
"Other people take decisions like that, but it's never good when there is a change in coach. It would be crazy," Ramos said to reporters in Vitoria on Saturday.
"We have to move on, because the season is very long and there's a very long way to go. Whoever says Real Madrid are dead is always proved wrong in the long term.
"We [the players] are the first people that need to do more to improve and we're trying to do that. It's not fair to point the blame at anyone, we're all conscious of the reality.
"Results are what people talk about and especially when you lose, but we are still committed, we are still ambitious and we still want to win, it's in our DNA. We're on the right path despite the bad results."
Madrid are next in action at home to Levante after the international break.
