Tottenham’s Pochettino calls for calm after 7-2 trouncing by Bayern Munich

Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino called for calm and was keen to avoid a “rash assessment” following the humiliating 7-2 Champions League drubbing at the hands of Bayern Munich.

Spurs were embarrassed on home turf as four second-half goals from former Arsenal winger Serge Gnabry helped the Bundesliga champions to a thumping Group B win.

The heaviest defeat of Pochettino’s reign is the latest in a string of poor results for the north London club this term following their run to the final of this competition last season.

Serge Gnabry
Serge Gnabry

“I think now is a moment to stay all together but you can imagine that we cannot talk now because now is a situation that we need to be calm first, after that we are going to talk tomorrow but not today,” said Pochettino.

“We know how we feel: very disappointed. The feelings are, of course, not so good.

“After a result like today, it’s so important to stay calm, you’re not going to fix nothing shouting or talking when the emotions are on the skin.

“We are so disappointed, my feeling is so bad because when you concede seven goals it’s so tough but you need to face this type of situation.

“The most important is to stay calm, no rash analysis, no rash assessment, it’s so important now to take a few hours to see what happened.”

Spurs went ahead through Son Heung-min and briefly threatened a comeback after Harry Kane’s penalty made it 4-2 before Bayern ran away with three goals in the final 10 minutes.

Joshua Kimmich had drawn the German club level, while in-form striker Robert Lewandowski gave them a half-time lead before claiming his second during the closing minutes.

Despite the late collapse, Pochettino felt his team played some of their best football of the season during the match.

Harry Kane
Harry Kane

“After the first half, it was my best feeling managing the team this season. That is so difficult to accept how after the second half changed that feeling and you feel really, really bad,” he said.

“The feeling, of course, in the last 10 minutes of the game when we conceded three goals it’s like the team was tired or gave up a little bit, that shows a little bit our frustration during the game because until 83 minutes the team was alive, the team was fighting.

“But they (Bayern) were very clinical. They are so good and have a lot of quality.”

Pochettino saw his side crash out of the Carabao Cup to League Two Colchester last week and has also suffered Premier League defeats to Newcastle and Leicester during an unconvincing start to the campaign.

The Argentinian called for unity ahead of Saturday’s top-flight trip to Brighton as his side attempt to bounce back.

“I think we are very critical with ourself and to find always the way to fix a problem. We need to try to move on because I think it’s more psychological now,” he said.

“I think the most important now is to have one idea, one analysis, one assessment and we need to stick with this idea and from there start to improve.”

Bayern hero Gnabry made little impact during his time in English football, including an unsuccessful loan move to West Brom, which ended when he left the Gunners to join Werder Bremen in 2016.

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— Bundesliga English (@Bundesliga_EN) October 1, 2019

He told his club’s website: “We delivered a great performance, always pushing, never stopped. There comes also such a result.

“It was a great evening for us. I’ve been waiting for my first Champions League goal for a long time and I would not have dreamed yesterday of shooting four straight away.”

Bayern boss Niko Kovac added: “Nobody could have dreamed that. It was a very intense game – Tottenham put us under a lot of pressure. But from the 30th minute, the team has done extremely well.

“It was a great moment for German football, but tomorrow we have to focus again on the Bundesliga. We have big tasks to do this year, we want to achieve a lot.”

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