Cristian’s verdict on Newcastle

Cristian Stellini spoke from the heart after our 6-1 loss against Newcastle United in the Premier League at St James’ Park on Sunday.

We were simply blown away in the opening stages of what was a huge game in terms of European qualification and found ourselves 5-0 down after 21 minutes.

Harry Kane pulled a goal back three minutes into the second half, Callum Wilson restored Toon's advantage on 67 minutes and that's how it stayed.

Acting Head Coach Cristian started with change of system with Clement Lenglet and Ben Davies only fit enough for a place on the bench, switching to four at the back with Pape Sarr joining Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Oliver Skipp in midfield. He switched back to the more familiar 3-5-2 soon after the fifth goal. We also lost Hugo Lloris with a muscle problem at half-time.

Speaking to SPURSPLAY pitchside at St James’, Cristian told us: “First of all, I apologise to everyone, because the start of this performance was really, really unacceptable.

“We have to analyse, take a breath, and understand what happened from the start in an important game like today... we have to take a breath and don’t speak too much. The best thing we can say is that we apologise to everyone, the second is to analyse why, and if the change of system affected this performance, because the performance in the first 25 minutes was really bad.”

Asked what was said at half-time, Cristian replied: “We didn’t speak a lot. We changed the system and the only thing we could say was that we had to play much better in the second half and prepare for the next game. I didn’t want to lose the second half. It was important to find a bit of confidence, if you can, after a game like this.”

That next game is Manchester United at home on Thursday evening (8.15pm). “Now, we have to be responsible,” added Cristian. “We have to go back to our stadium, back after this performance. We have to throw this feeling away, immediately.”

More - Cristian on SPURSPLAY