Villarreal coach Juan Carlos Garrido bemoaned his side's injury problems after seeing them slump to a second successive La Liga defeat, but remains in optimistic mood ahead of Thursday's UEFA Europa League clash with Napoli.
A week after seeing their unbeaten home record ended by third-bottom Levante, Villarreal suffered another 1-0 defeat after going down to a Deportivo La Coruna side that had lost six of their previous seven league and cup games.
That loss meant Villarreal surrendered third place in the standings to neighbours Valencia, and the Yellow Submarine could find themselves just four points in front of fifth-placed Athletic Bilbao if the in-form Basque side beat Real Mallorca tonight.
Garrido said: "For injuries and other reasons, there have come together a series of absentees that have not allowed us to give our best performances. There are very high expectations on us and we have to work more and correct what we've done wrong.
"We can analyse every game in a different way, but in the last two we've had players with problems. With Marco Ruben, Marcos Senna, Bruno, Nilmar and (Giuseppe) Rossi there have been various circumstances which have prevented them from all being in perfect condition. To be among the greats requires you give the maximum every day."
For injuries and other reasons, there have come together a series of absentees that have not allowed us to give our best performances.
Juan Carlos Garrido, Villarreal coach
Garrido, who nevertheless insists he sees the glass as "half-full" rather than half-empty, added: "For me the key is to recover the people who have been injured and those who have not been able to be at 100%.
"In our situation, we need to have the squad and the players at 100%. Last week Rossi and Marco Ruben were going to be the strikers and Marco got injured. This week Rossi and Nilmar were going to be up front and Rossi became ill. In the centre of the pitch, Bruno can't play because of an inflamed tendon in his knee..."
Villarreal do not have long to lick their wounds as they are back in action on Thursday when they travel to Italy to take on Napoli in the first leg of their Europa League last-32 tie. Looking ahead to that match, Garrido said: "To play games at a level as competitive as the one against Napoli is thanks to our hard work. The game on Thursday is totally different and there is no doubt that we will try to play at our best level.

"We are playing a very important tie, we are going to give it everything to beat them and we have our chances, which aren't few."