Mauricio Pochettino was not a happy man as his Tottenham Hotspur side slumped to 2-1 defeat at Wembley, coming up short against AS Monaco in their long-awaited Champions League opener.
Spurs were lifeless for large parts of their game against the Ligue 1 table-toppers, falling behind to goals from Bernardo Silva and Thomas Lemar within the first 32 minutes.
A record crowd of 85,000 had turned up to watch Tottenham at the national stadium, but were left disappointed despite Toby Alderweireld pulling one back in the 45th minute. The 'hosts', playing away from their normal stadium, failed to capitalise on their momentum in the second half.
"I'd have taken them all off", slams Pochettino
Pochettino was clearly frustrated with his side, who came into the game unbeaten this season, saying "we fought a lot last season to be here and your feeling is - why not do more?", going on to say that he was so dissatisfied with the performances of his players, "if it was basketball, I'd have taken them all off".
You can't really blame the Argentine, given that his team showed none of the swashbuckling style of play that had granted them the occasion, bar a 15 minute spell at the start of the game before the first goal.
He admitted "it was a game that we started well", but went on to say that "it was difficult to adapt" after the first goal went in, one which he commented "you cannot concede at this level" in possible reference to how easy Silva found it to dance through the midfield and score.
Spurs better than Monaco, didn't lose because of Wembley
“We created. I think we were better than Monaco. But to win you need to show more and create more," said the manager.
As the post-mortem on the defeat continues, some have attributed the lacklusture performance to the fact that Spurs were forced to play at Wembley, rather than White Hart Lane.
Pochettino rebuffed these claims, explaining that he thinks "that’s too good an excuse. We need to work, to show more hunger. We need to show a different image."