Ange Postecoglou has warned his players that they cannot focus solely on the Europa League after an "unacceptable" 15th Premier League defeat of the season at Fulham on Sunday.
The result left Spurs 11 points from ninth place and with little to play for in the top flight, but they are preparing for a Europa League quarter-final against Eintracht Frankfurt next month following the encouraging win over AZ Alkmaar in midweek.
Postecoglou made seven changes from the AZ game at Craven Cottage, with Micky van de Ven, Pedro Porro, Lucas Bergvall and Heung-min Son rested, but late goals from Rodrigo Muniz and former Spurs winger Ryan Sessegnon earned the hosts a victory.
"I said to the players I’m not going to allow anyone to think about Europa and nothing else," Postecoglou said afterwards. "We can’t let this league season go the way it has. We have lost way too many games. Unacceptable.
"Today was another day where it's not like the opposition have blown us off the park. We should have got something out of the game.
"We have had too many games this year where the opportunity to get something out of the game was there and we haven’t done that. I don’t want there to be an acceptance of us just losing games like that.
"If you accept it, it just becomes a lot more easier to not deal with adversity and I don’t want us to be that kind of team.
"I thought we showed last week against Bournemouth we knuckled down and got something out of the game and we didn’t allow it to get away from us.
“We won the last two away games. We showed some resilience, but today, for 75 minutes, I thought we were kind of where we wanted to be, and the fact that we have come out of that game with nothing is disappointing."
Postecoglou replaced Yves Bissouma and Brennan Johnson at half-time for the second consecutive league game after a first half in which Fulham had more of the play and the better chances.
"I felt we needed more going forward and I thought we started the second half a lot more positively," Postecoglou said. "I felt it was going to be a kind of a game where there wasn’t going to be a lot of openings but even within that in the first half I thought we could have been a lot more positive with our play on the ball.
"I think that happened in the second half but again, irrespective of that, if you concede soft goals like we do then you make the game really difficult."
Bissouma has now been hooked at the break in three of his last five starts and Postecoglou says the Malian midfielder must be more "dominant" and focussed.
"I just feel Biss can sometimes let the game drift by him," the Australian said.
"He needs to be a little bit more dominant in the way he gets on the ball. At times I think the game gets away from him and today we needed more in that position. I needed him to play though, because he hasn't played a lot. At the same time you've got to perform.
"It's fair to say, Biss and a few others are probably lacking a bit of confidence. That's affecting him but we're at the point of the season now where we need guys to get out there and put those things to one side and perform.
"It's not about getting through to him or a lack of effort. I just think with players sometimes they go through these spells and he needs to find a way to break through that and we need to find a way to get that out of him."
We get one slightly in our favour and there's national headlines for a week. Things go against us and there's not even a sentence on it
Ange Postecolgou on referee decisions
Spurs were denied a penalty in the 85th-minute after Calvin Bassey caught Bergvall, and a frustrated Postecoglou claimed his side do not get favourable decisions from officials because they do not "carry on" like many of their rivals.
Asked about the incident, he said: "I'll leave that to the officials but I will say that we don't carry on like a lot of other clubs and I think that hurts us for sure. I don't think there's ever any noise around us and decisions.
“We get one slightly in our favour and there's national headlines for a week. Things go against us and there's not even a sentence on it."
