Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino calls on Spurs to 'stick together' after Bayern Munich mauling
Mauricio Pochettino has called on Tottenham’s players to ‘stick together’ after a 7-2 mauling at the hands of Bayern Munich.
Serge Gnabry scored four second-half goals, accompanied by a brace from Robert Lewandowski, on a night which turned so sour after Son Heung-min gave the hosts an early lead.
A meek surrender which saw Spurs concede three goals in the final seven minutes exacerbated question marks already hanging over the spirit of a side which has suffered a mixed start to the season.
But Pochettino believes his side were unfortunate to face such a heavy deficit - calling the Bundesliga giants ‘clinical’.
He told BT Sport: "This type of situation you have to face. It is tough and you need to be strong and keep going. Stay together, help each other and be all together. When you receive this type of result it is important to bounce back and believe in yourself. It is the only way to recover.
"I don't need too much time to explain. We played 30 mins well, started well, pressing high. But we were unlucky that we conceded in the first minute of the half.
"They were very clinical. After we scored the penalty for two we had chances to score the third. But from the 83rd and 88th minute we conceded three more goals.
"In football it can happen. Every single touch went in. We are very disappointed and very upset but we have to stay together. I think we are strong in our mentality.
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"Maybe you are bored about my speech but football is today not yesterday. It is always is about the show. You have to do it today and tomorrow. It is not about experiences and what happened three months ago.
"We are disappointed. Every single touch from Bayern was clinical. They scored with every touch. It is tough to accept. You have to move on.”
The result leaves Spurs with just one point from their opening two matches of the European season - leaving minimal room to manoeuvre in the quest to qualify for the knockout rounds.
It follows a start to the Premier League season which has seen them drop points in four of their opening seven matches after a pre-season littered with questions over the futures of Christian Eriksen and Serge Aurier.
And former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand believes rejuvenating the side from here will be one of Pochettino’s biggest managerial challenges.
“I think it will be down to him, how he reacts to this. How he gets his team and his changing room to react to this,” Ferdinand said as a TV pundit.
“This is a huge result. To be beaten at home in the Champions League in a game of this magnitude against a Bayern Munich team who we were talking about before as being in transition.
“To be destroyed like this, he is going to have to look in the mirror and do something.
“We’ve all been there. We got beat at United, 6-1 against Man City our arch rivals.
“That feeling is a horrendous feeling and as a player all you want is a game to come round again – you’d take a game tomorrow.
“It won’t go away completely but you want the opportunity to go out there and put on a performance and get a result to revitalise not only your team and staff, but the fans as well.”
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