Pochettino refuses to single out Alli after Man City defeat | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur boss Mauricio Pochettino says his side’s 4-1 defeat away at Manchester City on Saturday was a collective failure rather than the fault of one individual.

Dele Alli came in for criticism after the game for what was the latest in a series of underwhelming performances, with BBC Match of the Day pundit Chris Sutton suggesting the England midfielder has “gone missing” this season.

But when asked whether he’s concerned about 21-year-old’s form in his post-match press conference, Pochettino kept his cards close to his chest.

“Look, I am not going to talk about individuals, about names, today because I think it’s unfair,” said the Argentine.

“I think the most important is our collective performance wasn’t how we expect and I think we were poor.

“I think not only poor, the way we concede the first goal was a massive mistake for us and when you play against teams like Manchester City if you concede after 15 minutes a goal like this, come on.

“We cannot assess individual performances after 4-1, I think we need to be calm and talk and next week try to be better.

“We need to improve, we need to learn from this situation. Today was a very good example to see a team that believe, has quality, has strength and is in very good form.

“There is nothing to say, they deserve the victory – completely.”

The defeat leaves Spurs 21 points behind City in the race for the Premier League title but with a trip to high-flying Burnley on the horizon next weekend, Pochettino says he and his players are determined to learn from the experience.

“It is a long way still [for us], not only Premier League but in Champions League and different things, the way we try to play I feel relaxed because we try,” he said.

“We tried to develop our philosophy and our ideas, it is true that the team that was in front was better than us but now we try to lift our players and prepare the next game because now, this game is in the past.”