LONDON -- Mauricio Pochettino has said Tottenham Hotspur's goal drought is down to the players' mentality and urged them to be more aggressive in the final third -- starting in Wednesday's Champions League match against Bayer Leverkusen.
Spurs are winless in five matches since the 2-0 victory over Manchester City on Oct. 2 and are without a goal from open play in the last four games, including a 0-0 draw at Leverkusen.
They host the Bundesliga side at Wembley before Sunday's North London derby against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, and Pochettino told a news conference: "We need to be more clinical in our offensive situation.
"We need to be determined and aggressive in the last third.
"It's true that the last few weeks after the international break it was difficult for us to score. We are creating the same chances as before. But our percentage was poor in front of goal. We are working on that."
Asked whether he was doing anything specific in training to address the goal drought, Pochettino said: "The problem is we don't have time to train too much.
"The priority is to rest and recover because we played after the international break, 22 days, seven games. Now we will play our sixth game in 19 days.
"It's too difficult to train and to work and to improve in some specific work. We can do things, but it's too difficult because the priority is rest and playing.
"We are watching a lot of clips and videos, but it's more about mentality, to be aggressive in your energy because the players know how to shoot. It's mentality more than work."
Spurs lost 2-1 to Monaco in their first Champions League game at Wembley, but Pochettino said his players would be ready to play at the 90,000-seat national stadium after being caught cold against the Ligue 1 side.
"After Monaco, it was all new for us. The changing-room was different, the places of the families, the supporters," he said.
"Now we know that tomorrow we are at Wembley, we know how we need to arrive, the parking for our cars, our habits. Now it will be completely different, and I hope it will be completely different on the result.
"We cannot blame Wembley because we played with 90,000 fan behind us. We need to to be clever, we need to play with intensity from the first minute.
"It's important to win. Leverkusen is a very good team with very good players. I think it will be tough."