Son Heung-min tears Tottenham apart after Europa League 'wake-up call' | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur captain Son Heung-min delivered a scathing review of his side's performance in a 1-0 defeat to AZ Alkmaar on Thursday night.

Lucas Bergvall's first-half own goal was the difference in a painfully one-sided Europa League last-16 tie. Spurs scarcely came close to finding the back of AZ's net, registering just one shot on target throughout 90 minutes at the home of a side sitting sixth in the Dutch top flight.

Son was at the heart of a first-half sequence which captured Tottenham's ineptitude. Presented with a rare sight of goal, James Maddison played a free-kick on the edge of the box short to Son who clearly wasn't expecting the pass, rapidly giving away possession to a chorus of jeers from a buoyant home crowd.

"It's nowhere near where we should perform," Son told TNT Sports. "It was very disappointing that we performed like this, including me. It's a big wake-up call because next week is the biggest game of the season.

"We didn't create anything in the first half, sloppiness, not performing the way we should. Everyone is very disappointed about the individual performance and the team performance.

"There are no excuses, we were not good enough. It's just 1-0, it's still not finished, and next week we have to be much better."

Son was left frustrated / Soccrates Images/GettyImages

Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou echoed the sentiment of his skipper, insisting that his side's performance "was nowhere near the level it needed to be". Rather than a question of "effort or attitude", the Australian head coach accused his side of not having "the right mindset to tackle an away fixture in Europe".

"You are going to face some pressure when you play away from home in Europe and weather the storm and get to grips with it," Postecoglou explained, "but we never really did so that was a disappointment."

Tottenham had enjoyed the rare luxury of an eight-day break before the trip to Alkmaar. Despite also recording a 1-0 reverse in their previous outing at home to Manchester City, the mood in N17 had been lifted by consecutive victories over Manchester United and Ipswich Town last month.

However, this week's dismal defeat has underscored the importance of the Europa League to a Tottenham team already out of both domestic cup competitions and mired in the bottom half of the Premier League table. As Son was quick to stress, the tie is not over, but Spurs will need to be much-improved if they are to overturn the one-goal deficit when they host AZ in north London next Thursday.