Pochettino: We felt the pressure

Mauricio Pochettino admits Tottenham are struggling to overcome the pressure at White Hart Lane after his side lost 2-1 at home to Stoke on Sunday.

Stoke were two ahead before the break thanks to strikes from Bojan Krkic and Jonathan Walters and the Potters held off a late Tottenham rally after Nacer Chadli had given the hosts hope late on.

Spurs have now lost four out of their last five home games in the league and the latest defeat sees Pochettino’s men drop to 12th in the Barclays Premier League table.

“When we conceded the first goal, we felt the pressure,” Pochettino said.

“When you play the way we want to play, you need to feel confident on the pitch because it’s important to create the space, to be patient with the ball.

“It’s true that when we conceded the goal we started to take rash decisions and felt uncomfortable in possession.”

Pochettino continued: “We have to find a solution and change the mentality.

“We conceded a goal after six minutes and then the team needed a lot of time to recover the performance. This is what we need to change.”

Pochettino’s high-tempo style of play worked wonders at Southampton last season but the Argentinian appears to be having trouble convincing Tottenham’s players to adopt his ideas.

“It’s clear from the results that we need to improve, we need to improve a lot,” Pochettino said.

“It’s another defeat and we need to improve, this is clear to see.

“In football you always need time to implement different methods but we need to improve quickly because you never have a long time in football.

“You need to get results and we need to find a solution quickly. My challenge in the next few weeks is to change the mentality and to find that solution.”

Pochettino substituted Christian Eriksen at half-time for the second consecutive league game and also took Andros Townsend off at the break.

The Tottenham boss insists the pair were replaced for “tactical reasons” and that all the players shared his disappointment in the dressing room.

“They know my feelings and I know their feelings,” Pochettino added.

“We have been here for months and we know the players and the players know me.

“We feel the same. We are very disappointed and frustrated and not happy because our performance was not good enough.”