Villarreal vs Mallorca preview - Garrido urges improvement

Juan Carlos Garrido did not expect to see his Villarreal side nestling in the relegation zone at all this season.

But after a miserable start which sees them flagging in 19th place, the coach expects them to be soaring up the table soon, and hopes Saturday's defeat by Granada proves to be the nadir of their initial slump.

Losing 1-0 to the Primera Division new boys was a painful result, coming after a 5-0 thumping by Barcelona and a 2-2 draw with Sevilla, but Garrido is taking a relaxed view of the situation.

"These things happen in football. When you get a bad result, you have to pick yourselves up," he said at today's press conference.

"Luckily, we play a lot of games because we are at a high competitive level, and in this case we have to lift ourselves because the next three points are very important.

"We are a football team that can play better than we are playing so far and I think we have the tools to do so.

"We lost a game unexpectedly and obviously that affects us all and puts us in a situation where we all want to do more."

Villarreal were also beaten at home in the Champions League by Bayern Munich last week, and Garrido accepts there will be criticism of their form.

"We can play better and we have players with ability to do better. Everyone has the right to say whatever he wants, but at this point what matters is what the players and coach do," he said.

"I think we're self-critical and recognise that we can do better.

"There are details to correct and improve, but it's true that we have a style of play and the doubts come when we fail to win. I understand that we can be better creatively and more dynamic in the final third."

In Real Mallorca, tomorrow's opponents, Villarreal meet a side who have lost successive fixtures, beaten 1-0 by both Real Betis and Malaga.

Mallorca boss Michael Laudrup will not take Villarreal's recent form as a pointer to how tomorrow's game will go.

Laudrup said: "We know they're a good team and difficult to play against even though they have not started very well this season, taking only one point from nine and losing at home to Bayern in the Champions League.

"We know that they have high quality and play very well in midfield and have great forwards."