Sergio Ramos asks Real Madrid fans for “forgiveness”

His future is in the hands of club president Florentino Perez, who has seen numerous managers come and go and whose own role is under the spotlight.

Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos was visibly upset throughout the match and asked for “forgiveness” from fans after the rout.

“When I pick a team I try to manage the squad I have in the best way I can and the team I put out was capable of a lot more quality”.

It’s still so, so early because we are only in November, and the league doesn’t end till May, but a gap of six points in November could prove to be pivotal when it is all said and done. His sacking in June provoked public uproar amongst the squad and a nervous press conference from Perez where he claimed he “didn’t know” the reasons for dismissing Ancelotti did little to help ease the tension.

“All that needs to be done is for the date to be named, but the decision has already been taken”, said the paper.

“We have to reflect on what happened and stay united”.

Madrid came flying out of the traps in the second half and Marcelo should have done much better when he fired into the side-netting after running clean through down the left.

“It’s painful for us to lose, and to lose the way we did”. “They are our eternal rivals and we both want to win the same trophies”. We didn’t play to the standards of this crest. It wasn’t a question of attitude.

However, the 29-year-old backed head coach Rafa Benitez, whose position is under pressure not less than four months into the job.

“Logically we are hurting”. If that had been a goal, we could have gotten into the game. We talked at half-time that we could get into the game but it became increasingly hard to overcome. “We’ve let La Liga titles slip away with ten-point leads and we’ve won others after trailing by a lot of points”, the 2010 World Cup victor said.

“What I’m most concerned about now is getting the team to recover mentally in time for the next match”.

Benitez had lost just once in his first 15 games in charge of Real Madrid before last night’s defeat against.

Real Madrid had been playing very well at home this season and they had only allowed one home goal before Suarez made his mark in the first.