Tottenham 'in a bad period', admits Mauricio Pochettino after limp Europa League defeat by Gent

Mauricio Pochettino admitted that Tottenham are in a “bad period” as they lost their second game in a week, giving an insipid performance in a 1-0 defeat at KAA Gent.

Spurs’ three-front challenge this season is under serious threat, with Tottenham failing to produce the response to Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Anfield that Pochettino was hoping for. Now Spurs go to Fulham in the FA Cup on Sunday hoping to “break their negative run” and turn their season around.

Tottenham were in brilliant form in December and January but they have won one in the last four games, that a 1-0 home defeat of Middlesbrough. That Harry Kane penalty was their only goal in the last four games. Suddenly Spurs have lost their edge.

“That is the reality, it sometimes happens,” Pochettino said of their struggling form. “Good and bad things happen. We've started now a bad period. I hope, on Sunday, we break that negative run.”

Despite the downturn in results and performances, Pochettino insisted that there was no problem with confidence in the Spurs squad.

“I don't know if it's about confidence,” Pochettino said. “Until Liverpool, we came from 11 or 10 games unbeaten. It's not about confidence, not about confidence. We were wrong with our judgement today if we think, because of Liverpool, it's only about confidence.”

But Pochettino admitted that he will have to make changes at Craven Cottage to respond to the disappointment of this defeat, trying to restart Spurs’ season. He also hopes that star Harry Kane will recover from a knock to his knee sustained here.

“I think we need to assess some players,” Pochettino said. “Harry Kane got a knock on his knee, and we need to refresh the team, and we'll do that.”

Pochettino said that he hopes Spurs will turn Wembley into home for the return leg on Thursday, where they will need to win by two goals to progress to the last-16. Spurs struggled at Wembley in the Champions League, losing badly to AS Monaco and Bayer Leverkusen.

“The tie is open, we cannot be worried about the result today, about the trust on the team,” Pochettino said. “The attitude was good. Now we go to Wembley next Thursday and try and make Wembley a home, feel good and put pressure on them to try and win a game.”

Gent coach Hein Vanhaezebrouck said he was looking forward to playing at the “mythical” Wembley for the return game on Thursday.

“For me, [Tottenham] was one of the better playing football teams in England, going back 20 or 30 years when they were already playing European style,” he said. “But going to Wembley is mythical. That history in that stadium. The most important thing for us was to make it a game. Avoid losing 4-0. We saw it this week. But now we can really make a game of it.”