Dejan Kulusevski delivered a damning verdict on Tottenham Hotspur’s bruising defeat to Nottingham Forest on Monday evening, labelling the team’s results as “not good enough”.

Spurs were beaten 2-1 by former manager Nuno Espirito Santo as Forest completed a rare double over the Lilywhites, with Richarlison’s late strike unable to overturn goals from Elliot Anderson and Chris Wood.

Tottenham managed 22 shots and created 2.14 expected goals but stumbled to their 18th Premier League defeat of the season, a result that left them languishing in 16th and much closer to the relegation zone than the top four when it comes to their points tally. Having reached the Europa League semi-finals last Thursday, it was a chastening reality check.

Head coach Ange Postecoglou is expected to be dumped at the end of the term regardless of success in the Europa League and Kulusevski is the latest to slam the underperforming Lilywhites.

“[The top clubs have] been doing it many years,” said the Swede when quizzed about Tottenham’s inconsistency. “They know exactly what they’re doing. They’re bringing in a lot of players that are ready to play both competitions. And they are prepared for it.

“This year we cannot say that we’re prepared for it because we had so many injuries and we did a lot of things wrong from the beginning of the season and we’re paying for it right now.

“After big nights like Thursday, you always go down. That’s why teams who are in more competitions are paying [a price]. We’re not handling it right, we’re not handling it well. Because after 16 minutes we’d conceded three goals, with the offside goal. Then it’s hard to win football games. It’s not good enough.”

He added: “The manager said the first 15 minutes cost us the game with the corners and free-kicks.

“[It’s] not good enough. We’ve got to improve. We’ve got to improve from crosses. I know we defended good on Thursday but we concede too many crosses and everybody must take responsibility and ask themselves why we concede so many crosses.”

Things don’t get much simpler for Spurs, who face table toppers Liverpool on Sunday, which could be the game the Reds win the Premier League title, before the crucial first leg of their Europa League semi-final tie with Norwegian underdogs Bodo/Glimt the following Thursday.

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