Álvaro Arbeloa backed Real Madrid to bounce back after Sunday's 2-0 Clásico defeat saw rivals Barcelona confirmed as LaLiga champions, saying "Real Madrid always come back."
Marcus Rashford scored a stunning early free kick, and Ferran Torres added a second after 18 minutes, as Barça were crowned champions at Camp Nou, increasing their lead at the top of the table to 14 points with three games left.
Madrid have now gone two seasons without winning a major trophy for the first time in 20 years, and Arbeloa, who was hired as coach mid-season after the sacking of predecessor Xabi Alonso, said he understood fans' anger.
"We can't say much," Arbeloa said in a postmatch news conference, when asked for a message for Madrid fans. "We understand their frustration, and how dissatisfied they are with this season. All we can do is work, look to the future, and learn from what we've done wrong this year.
"Real Madrid always come back. We've fallen and got back up many times, but I understand how angry Madrid fans might be. We'll have to work to turn it around."
Arbeloa said he'd "have a conversation with the club" about his own future, and insisted that a major overhaul of the Madrid squad wasn't required.
"No, we have a great squad." he said. "It hasn't been easy, I don't want to make excuses, but we've had a lot of injuries to important players. The club will always look to improve...All we can do is look to the future and think about what we have to do better next season."
"As I've said many, many times, we need to take a step forward collectively," Arbeloa added. "We need to have a much clearer idea of what we want to do, and put the collective ahead of the individual. We always need a clear idea, that's the start. We've dropped many points against teams we shouldn't have."
Arbeloa described a second-half penalty appeal for an elbow from Eric García on Jude Bellingham as "clear" and said he "didn't know" whether star forward Kylian Mbappé would feature again for Madrid this season.
The forward was left out of Sunday's matchday squad as he recovers from a hamstring problem, but the coach refused to criticise Mbappé's failure to travel with the team.
"We've got two weeks left," Arbeloa said. "Depending on how his discomfort evolves, we'll see if he can play or not.
"What I'd have liked is for him to be 100% and play here from the start."