Tottenham star has failed teammates by publicly calling out 'mentality' problem

Tottenham star Pedro Porro has let his teammates down with loose-lipped comments about the team’s Champions League approach after a frustrating evening in Monaco. Spurs returned from the principality with a point after a goalless draw, but they were lucky to hold on, with Vicario the man of the match after facing 23 shots in all.

Thomas Frank’s men have five points from their first three games, but they have been far from their best in the competition. They will have looked at games against Bodo-Glimt and Monaco as games they were expecting to win, and while they beat Villarreal, it took a hugely fortunate own goal for them to win it.

Frank has been open about his team lacking intensity in the competition, putting it down to getting used to the demands of playing Premier League and Champions League football, but Pedro Porro has taken a more direct approach.

The frustrated full-back told Cadena Ser: “We’re not in a bad situation, but let’s hope the second win comes. The other day in the draw against Monaco, I said it in the dressing room: we don’t have the right mentality, and in this competition, they run you over and you don’t even realise it.”

Now, fans love it when players are honest and speak their minds, so these kind of comments might wash with supporters, but they won’t go down well with those inside the dressing room. If you have something to criticise as a player, you keep it in house.

Porro could easily have said that Tottenham have things to improve, in general, without accusing his teammates of lacking a certain mentality in public. And the “we” in his statement fools no one. If you have something like that to say, you say it in the dressing room after the game, as he did, and leave it between those walls.

That sort of comment is not going to come across well with his teammates, who will surely see it as a player who sees recognises a problem within the rest of his cohort rather than one he has himself. In a game that Tottenham have not lost, there is simply no need to be calling out anything after the game that is not game-specific.

If Tottenham have a mentality problem, you can divide that problem by 11 and dish out one portion to Porro. That’s what the Spaniard should be speaking about - how he can do more to set the right mentality.

Leave the rest of it to Frank, who is also being called into question when the mentality of the team in a specific competition is being criticised. It’s simply not a good look, and it could easily have been done behind closed doors.

Frank is an autorretuve figure at Spurs, and it would be no surprise if he was to address those comments directly with Porro. Spurs have been patchy of late, but it has been a solid start to the season so far. They should be keeping things positive, at least externally.

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