Marcelo: Real Madrid must learn from horror start at Valencia
Real Madrid conceded twice in the first nine minutes against Valencia and Marcelo says there cannot be a repeat of such a start.
Marcelo has warned Real Madrid to learn from their mistakes following their 2-1 defeat to Valencia on Wednesday.
Simone Zaza and Fabian Orellana scored inside the first nine minutes at Mestalla, and although Cristiano Ronaldo halved the deficit, the visitors could not prevent a second LaLiga loss of the season.
Zinedine Zidane's side have now suffered three defeats this year - one more than they managed in the whole of 2016 - and remain only a point above Barcelona at the top of the table, although they have a game in hand.
Marcelo believes they had only themselves to blame for the result and has called on his team-mates to prevent a similar slip-up between now and the end of the season.
"I think we started badly, there are no excuses," he said afterwards. "We're to blame, we played badly.
"We tried at the end but we conceded two silly goals and we made mistakes. We're still at the top of the table but we can't start games like that.
"Valencia are a great team, they've been through bad times but it's difficult to play here, the fans get on top of you. We'll learn from these mistakes so it doesn't happen again.
Get FourFourTwo Newsletter
The best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week.
"We've done everything to get the equaliser, but we have to change a few things."
3 - Real Madrid have lost more games in 2017 (3) than they had last year (2 - all competitions). Alarm. February 22, 2017
‘Milan didn’t collapse against Liverpool in Istanbul. We lost focus for six minutes – for the other 114, we played an extraordinary, beautiful game’: AC legend claims they were 'extraordinary' against Reds in 2005 Champions League final
‘Charlton could have qualified for Europe, but selling Scott Parker to Chelsea made the difference. The manager didn’t want him to go and there was a disagreement’: Former Addicks star highlights key reason why they failed to maintain 2003/04 form