Pochettino slams Spurs' 'lack of passion'

Pochettino was unwilling to use not playing at White Hart Lane, which is being redeveloped, as a reason for the loss as he criticised his men.

Pochettino felt Tottenham was the better team, but praised Monaco for being the more effective outfit.

Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino criticised his team for a lack of passion in its 2-1 Champions League loss to Monaco. Bernardo Silva and Thomas Lemar struck in the opening 31 minutes at Wembley on Wednesday to set up victory for Leonardo Jardim's men.

Toby Alderweireld pulled a goal back for Spurs on the stroke of half-time, but that was as good as it got for Pochettino's team. Pochettino was unwilling to use not playing at White Hart Lane, which is being redeveloped, as a reason for the loss as he criticised his men.

"That is to put an excuse. Football is on the pitch, the grass. To play, we need to improve and learn that we cannot concede a goal how we conceded," he said. "We need to be more aggressive in possession, when we have the possibility to score, we need to be more, more aggressive. We need to show more hunger, we need to show more passion. I think we showed a lack of passion today."

Pochettino felt Tottenham was the better team, but praised Monaco for being the more effective outfit. "When you play for Tottenham, it is difficult to accept the way that we conceded the goal today. But not only the first [goal], the second was the same," he said.

"I think we all agreed about that, and when you concede a goal like this, yes we can speak about many things, but 2-0 down, it was very difficult. "It is true that we created more chances, more corners, more shots, more possession, more everything. We were better than Monaco, but they were more effective in both areas than us." Tottenham can get its Group E campaign back on track when it visits CSKA Moscow on September 27.