Spurs manager Mauricio Pochetinno has rejected Glenn Hoddle's claim that Tottenham have become complacent in the league this season following last year's impressive campaign.
Since a terrific 2-0 win over Manchester City in the league, Tottenham have not win in six in all competitions - the latest being a 1-0 home defeat in the Champions League to Bayer Leverkusen - which has put the side in a difficult position in the groupstage to qualify.
The ex-midfielder has thus questioned if the new contracts handed to the players at the start of the season has derailed their motivation for improving on last season's league position, of which the Tottenham manager has denied when speaking to the media.
But Pochetinno has since hit back to suggest "I respect all the opinions and of course Glenn Hoddle can speak and advise the players and us. He is a legend.
"But in my opinion there are many things that happen sometimes in football that are too difficult to explain.
"We were talking before about Dele Alli who has maybe dropped a little bit and is not scoring in the same way that he did last season.
"Maybe in the last month he has been ill, he has had a cold and had problems. Maybe we have some injured players that we can't rotate and maybe some players are tired
Glenn Hoddle suggests Tottenham players who have signed new deals have 'taken their foot off the pedal' https://t.co/gSILcDa4w3 pic.twitter.com/znwocz9AYM
"That happens sometimes in football. Mixed together, maybe we have dropped our performance. But I respect all opinions."
The manager was also questioned about a dip in player performances and a lack of goals in recent games.
"It's football. You know that you have to be calm and show a good balance when you get positive results and when you don't get the results you expect. It's always important because we always play the same,
"After City we were the best and now we are the worst. It's always about balance. [Now we] try to maybe change something and to find a better way to play now.
"Yes, we have some problems to create chances or to be clinical in front of goal or to show more consistency. Maybe the problem is not in front. Maybe it's because we are not building in a very good way from the back and the ball arrives in the last third in a different condition.
"It's a very complex job for us to analyse why. But it's true that we are finding the problem and now it's more difficult to try to fix that.