Mauricio Pochettino will admit, “Houston, we have a problem” if his Spurs space cadets repeat their Watford crash-landing against Liverpool’s stars this weekend.

The Tottenham boss has claimed his team played as it was a testimonial in front of rocket-man Elton John in their last game — and showed a lack of respect to their opponents.

Fifth-placed Spurs, who signed no new players in the summer, welcome the Premier League leaders, who invested £170m in their title challenge during the same window, for Saturday's lunchtime kickoff.

(Image: Reuters)

(Image: EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

And former Argentina defender Pochettino admitted: “If Saturday we play in the same way rather than take off players, I will be on the phone to say, ‘Houston, we have a problem!”

“Come on. If, against Liverpool at Wembley, you do not have the desire and the focus to play...

“It is not about playing well. It is about attitude and to say, ‘Hey, come on. We are aggressive and we try to win.’

“If you watch the Watford game again, you see we played so slow, so sloppy, from the beginning. It was like we thought, ‘OK, it is a nice afternoon in Watford... Elton John is in the stands!’ It was like going to Hyde Park with my child.

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(Image: PA)

(Image: EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

“It does not mean we are going to kill someone. It is only to be responsible. To win games, we need to be focused for 95 minutes. If not, you always pay in football.

“If you are disrespectful, you pay. If you do not pay today, you pay tomorrow. That is what is so important in football.

“When the opponent is [seen as] below you, sometimes people can get confused. To respect the opponent is to score once, twice, three, four, five, ten goals. To not show respect is to think it is a poor team, play so slow, with 2-0 or 3-0 is enough, then waiting for the end of the game.

Tottenham press conference with Pochettino ahead of Liverpool game

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“To show respect for the opponent is to go and kill, with every single action. That is the way you show it. You need to be aggressive. That is how I understand football.”

The Spurs boss, who will be without captain Hugo Lloris in goal and midfielder Dele Alli because of injuries, also accepted his share of the blame after the high of an away victory over Manchester United just six days earlier.

“After we win at Old Trafford, we lost at Watford and we were bad,” Pochettino said. “But after Manchester United, all the signals from the team were that we were going to crash.

“And of course, I am guilty because I saw that, but I cannot change that situation.

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“Now to win against Liverpool can change the mood and change the perception and everything but still if you win, after, you win against Brighton [Spurs' game next weekend]. Because you need to be consistent.”

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Pochettino insisted it is “too early” to judge his club’s title credentials against big-spending Liverpool.

“As I say from the beginning, we will judge the team at the end,” he said. “Today to talk is empty words, because we don’t know what happens. Football is about results and we see what happens, whether we are right or not.”