Mauricio Pochettino warns players to step up after defeat at Watford

Pochettino was clear in his forthright post-match press conference that he was not impressed with Spurs’ performance at Vicarage Road

Mauricio Pochettino looks on during Tottenham's defeat against Watford (AP)

Mauricio Pochettino told his Tottenham players that if they want to be contenders for the Premier League title they cannot afford to throw away games as they did against Watford.

Spurs were 1-0 up with 20 minutes left but conceded twice from set-pieces, leaving an exasperated Pochettino lecturing his players on the mentality required to be a top team. Accusing the players of complacency, and telling them to compare their attitude to that of Manchester City last season, Pochettino hoped that this needless defeat would be a “wake-up call” for the players. He said that after the high of beating United on Monday, they had not properly applied themselves here this afternoon.

Pochettino was clear in his forthright post-match press conference that he was not impressed with Spurs’ performance at Vicarage Road, that they needed to improve on it, and continue to “respect” the Premier League, even after starting the season with three wins. The implication was clear, that after three wins Spurs had taken their foot off the gas and they were rightly punished for it.

“After you win the game, you need to respect more this competition,” Pochettino said. “We need to show more respect to this competition. You need to compete much, much better. You need to show respect, to compete to win. The Premier League is so, so tough. That’s why after beating Manchester United, we need to be more cautious.”

So Pochettino wanted Spurs to fight even harder and was disappointed that they did not. “Today from the beginning we needed to go there like lions, and try to score from every single action,” he said. “OK we played football, but aggressive, aggressive! From the beginning we go ‘ok, I am going to spend a very good afternoon here.’ Of course it’s disappointing. It’s so painful that the first-half looks like a friendly game, I am very disappointed because it is too difficult to understand.”

Pochettino pointed to the attitude showed by Manchester City in winning the Premier League title last season, winning 100 points on the way, or by Antonio Conte’s Chelsea the previous season. He told his players that if they wanted to have a good season this year, they would have to reach the same level.

“When you score, you keep going, you play in the same way, but we started to change and started to play long ball, and then we concede two goals that if you want to be a contender, you cannot concede” Pochettino said.

“In the second half we scored, and then [we needed] more strength, more aggression in the situation. In every single game you are going to find this type of situation. Every single [time] for Manchester City last season. The season before with Chelsea. All the teams that win the Premier League concede chances like this. If you want to win, you need to show that character. You need to defend well. Maybe not if you don’t play so well, but you need to win this this type of game if you want to be a contender.”

Pochettino said that the two set-piece goals Spurs conceded were down to communication and positioning but ultimately down to mentality, and the failure to show the refusal to concede is what defines the best teams. “It’s about organisation, it’s about decisions, many things, many simple things happen in this type of situation,” he said. “It’s about energy, it’s about communication, it’s about being strong, when you show that character and that mentality it’s to say: it’s impossible that the opponent is going to score. But I think It’s a very good wake-up call for everyone to say: ‘come on, we need to compete, we need to talk about how to improve. We need to be better.”