Pochettino laments Spurs’ lack of passion

Mauricio Pochettino felt that his Tottenham side lacked passion after they were defeated by Monaco in their Champions League opener.

Spurs played their home game in front of more than 80,000 supporters at Wembley due to redevelopment work ongoing at White Hart Lane, but the Argentine felt his players didn’t match the passions of the hordes that cheered them on.

Goals from Bernardo Silva and Thomas Lemar left Spurs two behind at the half-hour mark and while Toby Alderweireld headed them back into the game before half-time, they were not able to rescue a point.

Pochettino highlighted the poor defending that gifted Ligue 1 Monaco a massive advantage.

“We showed a lack of passion today,” he said. “We cannot concede the goal we conceded. That is the truth.

“That is the way we spoke in the changing room. We all agree. It’s a shame because today was a good opportunity to give to our fans a good performance and a victory.

It’s a shame.” The Tottenham boss was in no mood to hide behind relocating to Wembley as an excuse for defeat, insisting his players need to focus on putting the opposition under much greater pressure next time out.

“That’s an excuse. Football is on the pitch, on the grass,” he added. “We need to improve and learn that we cannot concede the goals that we conceded.

We need to be aggressive in possession.” Having watched the hard graft Spurs put in to earn their Champions League return after five years, the manager was at a loss to explain what went wrong.

“We wait a lot to play Champions League. We fought a lot last season to be here, and then you feel: ‘Why didn’t we do more?'”, he added.

Spurs are now 3.80 to win Group E while Monaco are 2.05.