Tottenham assistant manager Cristian Stellini says the team must be "mentally better" after the dismal 4-1 defeat at Leicester.
Spurs followed up their impressive 1-0 win over Manchester City with an abject display at the King Power Stadium, as the Foxes recovered from Rodrigo Bentancur’s opening goal to record a comfortable victory.
Spurs head coach Antonio Conte was back on the touchline after missing the win over the champions while he recovered from surgery to remove his gallbladder but Stellini deputised on media duties again.
Asked to explain Spurs’ inconsistency, he said: "Not an explanation because if you know why it happens, you can change this. It happened also last season: when we beat Manchester City, we lost to Burnley. To be consistent is a long process, a mental process. You have to be better mentally, better in the approach. Today the approach was not bad. But after we scored the goal, something changed.
"We turned off and in this league you can’t turn off. You have to be consistent in all parts of the game. We struggled a lot after the first goal. We’re disappointed for that."
Stellini added that Spurs struggled to replicate the levels of energy and desire shown against City.
"We’re a team. The team has to change something. Not only individually. It’s about the desire," he said. "You want to play this game, it’s about recovering energy mentally.
"When you play a team like Manchester City maybe you use all the energy you have. To recover this energy, it’s like a battle and how much this battle can contain. You have to recreate the same energy. To have this battle bigger you have to work. And we have to do it.
"Not only the players, everyone has to do it. The players have to be disappointed with the play. We have to be disappointed in ourselves. Everyone has to think about this."
Spurs were without injured pair Hugo Lloris and Yves Bissouma, and the suspended Cristian Romero, while Bentancur suffered a serious-looking knee injury mid-way through the second half. The midfielder appeared in considerable distress after jarring his knee and was offered oxygen and a stretcher, but managed to walk off the pitch.
"He feels pain at the moment," said Stellini. "We know only this but he can walk so it’s important to feel that he came back to the bench with his leg [injury]... and we hope that we can check in a few days that Rodrigo can feel better and he play soon."
With Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg suspended for Tuesday’s Champions League last-16 first leg against AC Milan, Spurs could be left with a midfield of youngsters Oliver Skipp and Pape Matar Sarr at the San Siro.
"We trust a lot in our team, in all the squad," Stellini said. "So if we need to play with other players we will play and trust in them. It’s important to understand that it’s not one player who changes the team. If the team does something more we can cover the gap with players who haven’t in the past played a lot. If everyone takes responsibility, nothing changes."
