‘So many long balls’ – Lucas Moura gives honest assessment of poor NLD tactics

Lucas Moura has admitted that he and his teammates are hurting after the 3-1 loss to Arsenal on Sunday but vowed the players will keep working hard to improve.

Tottenham’s poor first-half display cost them dearly at the Emirates as the home side punished them for a lacklustre start.

The Gunners effectively had the result sealed just past the half-hour mark after racing into a three-goal lead.

Moura, who came back into the starting eleven after recovering from his injury, admitted that the players were desperate to do well for the fans on Sunday.

The Brazilian told Football.London: “The feeling is very, very bad. We know what it means for the fans, for the club and of course, we wanted to win, we wanted a different result.

“It’s not a time to speak. It’s a time to be quiet and work hard. It was a very bad game, it didn’t work at all. Like I said, it’s time to work hard.

“I think they took advantage of our mistakes. We gave them too much space and we didn’t play. We didn’t try to play. We didn’t try to have the ball.

“We have the quality to have the ball, to build, to do more than what we did today. So many long balls. We were not aggressive enough and they punished us.”

Moura admitted that the players need to be more aggressive than they have been over the past few weeks and promised that they will put in the work necessary to turn things around.

He added: “What I can say is we will work hard to improve, to do differently in the next game. We have the quality for this, to trust in our team, our squad, our manager. We will improve.

“We need to run more. We need to be more aggressive, we need to work more, work harder, but we cannot be crazy. It’s only the beginning of the season. We have a lot of games to play so we need to improve as soon as possible.”

The 29-year-old asserted that Tottenham have enough quality in their squad to put these poor results behind them and put together a good run in the Premier League.

He said: “It’s the Premier League. Every game is hard, every game is a war. The first three games was good, especially against City.

“I don’t know why we changed our mind against Palace, it didn’t work. We didn’t know how to react after but we need to react as soon as possible. We need to improve. Like I said, we have the quality to do better.

“We need to know how to pass this moment, how to face this moment. We’re all good players who have quality to improve. To do better. That’s the Premier League, that’s football.”

Spurs Web Opinion

From the evidence of what we have seen from the side so far this season, it does appear as if the team is struggling to find a tactical identity under Nuno.

We have looked defensively unorganised when we have tried to play on the front foot while we have struggled to create chances when we are set up more pragmatically. At this moment, it does not feel like there is light at the end of the tunnel.

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