Argentine Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone commented on the team's recent decline in results, with the intention of turning around their faltering season following another defeat. Atletico was beaten 1-0 away to Mallorca on Wednesday, stretching their winless run to five matches across all competitions – they have never endured a worse streak during Simeone's spell in charge.
"To say that we have lacked forcefulness in all the games is a very simple excuse. We're making a lot of defensive mistakes that make games uphill battles for us, having to go looking to change the result and that create complications for us," he later said in his post-match press conference and published in-house Marca newspaper today.
"We are under a very bad period and we have to be calm and keep working to change the situation," the Atletico Madrid coach added. "The pause of the championship will generate peace of mind to work, and to fully recover [injured players], whom we obviously need," Simeone told Marca.
"I hope that after the World Cup they come back with the idea of reversing this difficult situation."
Atlético Madrid failed to win during its third consecutive game in La Liga, after losing to Cadiz 3-2, then drawing with Espanyol 1-1, and finally losing to Real Mallorca 1 - 0.