Iker Casillas broke the silence of the Spain dressing room to apologise for his part in their downfall and to encourage his team to put the Holland defeat behind them and win the remaining group games, against Chile and Australia, to give the world champions the chance of defending their title.

That is according to Vicente del Bosque, who on Saturday night praised his captain’s leadership and revealed that he fell asleep in front of the Australia game and woke up the following morning with the television still on. The Spain coach also admitted that there may be changes for the game against Chile but said they would not equate to pointing the finger at guilty parties following the 5-1 hammering by Holland.

“When I got to the dressing room Iker was talking to everyone in the midst of the silence, blaming himself for what happened and laying the foundations for the recovery that we need,” Del Bosque said, speaking at Spain’s training camp in Curitiba, to where the team had returned after the match in Salvador. “He showed what a good captain he was by doing that.”

Although Spain arrived to be greeted by a handful of fans chanting “Sí, se puede,” “Yes, we can”, the criticism has been fierce. Sergio Ramos on Saturday described talk of the end of an era as “madness” but Del Bosque had anticipated the backlash. “How could there not be criticism after that?” he said.

Del Bosque was not due to talk on Saturday night but decided that it was beneficial to show his face and to present a united front. He spoke after Ramos and Jordi Alba had appeared in a press conference. They, too, had not been scheduled to face the media.

“It’s very difficult for players to be entirely isolated [from the media],” Del Bosque said. “We have to be conscious of the fact that we deserve the criticism, so long as it is done with respect. And I don’t think isolating ourselves from that entirely is a good thing either.

“The players have the maturity and the professionalism to face up to this situation and those who are over 30 will take on more responsibility because of everything they have won. People have got too used to things going well but we do always warn the players that they have to be ready for adversity.”

Polls suggest that fans want significant changes to the Spain team and questions are, perhaps inevitably, being asked of the original squad – something which had not happened with much insistence at the time.

“We brought 16 of the 23 players who won in South Africa and they took part in qualifying for Brazil too,” Del Bosque said. “We have brought them because we are convinced that they are the best. People have got too used to everything going well.

“There could be a change or two [against Chile], but now’s not the time to talk about that. We do not want to be hasty and make the wrong decisions. In any case, even if there are changes, that will not mean that we are pointing the finger at anyone. After the second goal we became disorganised and wanted to do things too quickly but I am not one to stick my finger in the wound; the players are aware of what happened.”

Sergio Ramos admitted that he found it hard to sleep after the defeat, but insisted that Spain would recover. “You can’t stop going over it in your head,” he said. “When you lack that little bit of extra motivation or luck, [results like] that can happen.”

Asked what he meant by a lack of motivation, Ramos explained: “In the second half we got infected by a kind of negative energy that you should never have. It also motivates other teams to play against the world champions – you can see it in their eyes.

“We had the game in our hands and it slipped away from us. Talk of the end of an era is madness. We’re more united than ever; we’ve got our pride and we’re determined. There was a chat in the dressing room afterwards, but it doesn’t matter who spoke; it’s not about hanging medals on ourselves. We’re a team. It’s good to talk and to reach conclusions.”