Mauricio Pochettino says Tottenham are 'a bit behind' in pre-season

Mauricio Pochettino admits Spurs are a bit behind in pre-season

Mauricio Pochettino admits Tottenham are "a bit behind" in pre-season and in the transfer market this summer following their 3-0 defeat by Manchester City.

After losing 3-2 against Roma in the week, Spurs fell to goals by John Stones, Raheem Sterling and Brahim Diaz in Tennessee in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Spurs are the only Premier League team yet to make a signing this summer, and Pochettino said after the game that he wants to bring energetic players to the club between now and the end of the window to add competition.

"Of course, Man City have more senior players than us and they invest more money than us," Pochettino said. "You can see that we have a lot of young players on the bench.

"It's true the squads are completely different but we are building the squad. Maybe today they have a little bit of an advantage, they are ahead of us because they have signed and kept the players that they want.

City swept past Spurs with ease in Tennessee

"We are a little bit behind but working hard to sign some players who can help us and bring some energy, and make us more competitive."

Pochettino's side were second best against an impressive City, who had swept aside European champions Real Madrid 4-1 in midweek.

The Argentine insists he is prioritising fitness over results in pre-season, however, and says some key players only started training two weeks ago.

"We prioritised training, and tried to get fit, over the result, as I told you before Paris Saint-Germain and Roma," Pochettino added.

Manchester City produced a dominant performance as they beat Tottenham 3-0 in the ICC in Nashville. Pictures courtesy of Premier Sports. Manchester City produced a dominant performance as they beat Tottenham 3-0 in the ICC in Nashville. Pictures courtesy of Premier Sports.

"It's true you want to win but Manchester City was better than us, showed better quality. We lost and deserved to lose, and they deserved to win.

"It's not trying to justify, for me they were better, but our main players 14 days ago started training and it's very difficult to get fit if you only focus on playing games.

"We pushed a lot to train to train and develop our physical condition. Yesterday it was a tough training session and we knew it would be difficult to compete with City, who have a lot of quality."