Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino is demanding his players not get caught out early in today's clash with Liverpool.

Fifth-placed Spurs, who signed no new players in the summer, welcome the Premier League leaders, who invested £170m in their title challenge during the same window, for Saturday's lunchtime kickoff.

Pochettino admitted: “If Saturday we play in the same way rather than take off players, I will be on the phone to say, 'Houston, we have a problem!"

“Come on. If, against Liverpool at Wembley, you do not have the desire and the focus to play...

“It is not about playing well. It is about attitude and to say, 'Hey, come on. We are aggressive and we try to win.'

“If you watch the Watford game again, you see we played so slow, so sloppy, from the beginning. It was like we thought, 'OK, it is a nice afternoon in Watford... Elton John is in the stands!' It was like going to Hyde Park with my child.

“It does not mean we are going to kill someone. It is only to be responsible. To win games, we need to be focused for 95 minutes. If not, you always pay in football.

“If you are disrespectful, you pay. If you do not pay today, you pay tomorrow. That is what is so important in football."