On Sunday, Tottenham humiliated top-four rivals Newcastle United at home by conceding five goals in the first half.
Cristian Stellini accepted responsibility for the humiliating 6-1 loss to Newcastle United, which left Tottenham's chances of finishing in the top four of the Premier League hanging by a thread.
In a sensational opening at St James' Park, Jacob Murphy and Alexander Isak each scored two goals, while Joelinton added another as Spurs found themselves 5-0 down just 21 minutes.
A team has only gone 5-0 up earlier in a game once in Premier League history, and that was Manchester City in 2019, when they defeated Watford 8-0.
With a game left to play, Newcastle moved six points ahead of Spurs in the fight for a top-four finish despite Harry Kane pulling one back after the break.
In order to field a four-man backline instead of their regular 3-4-3, which Stellini acknowledges backfired, Tottenham suffered their most recent humiliation.
We weren't adequately prepared to play a vital match, which is why things went so horribly. I believe our team is strong, but nobody excelled today, interim coach Stellini told Sky Sports.
We chose to defend differently because of the many injuries we had; Ben Davies and [Clement] Lenglet may have only been able to play for 15 minutes. "It was my obligation to pick the system we play.
"It is my duty to make decisions of this nature. I took it, but it was incorrect. We discussed changing the system last week, but we obviously didn't demonstrate this.
"We weren't ready for such a difficult game. Being prepared entails going through pain, gaining control of an area, engaging in combat, and winning duels. We lacked adequate preparation.
After Newcastle's fifth goal, Stellini switched to a three-man defense, replacing the inexperienced midfielder Pape Sarr with Davinson Sanchez, and he believes that this adjustment gave Spurs the opportunity to demonstrate some grit.
"I have to accept responsibility for this because the game was over after we changed systems, but we played better, scored goals, and tried to fight," he remarked.
"It's very challenging to comprehend why the opening 25 minutes were so awful."
In response to Sarr's removal in the 23rd minute, Stellini continued, "It was not his error or his issue. We anticipated that the first 20 minutes would be challenging for all of us.Simply avoid giving up goals. We gave up the first goal after the opening shot.
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