Cape Town - Tottenham striker Harry Kane says it down to the club's players to "take responsibility" for what has been a poor start to the season.
Spurs have won just two of their eight games this season and were knocked out of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night on penalties by League Two Colchester.
Pochettino's side are 10 points behind leaders Liverpool in the Premier League and threw away a 2-0 lead at Olympiakos in their opening Champions League group-stage.
Kane told Sky Sports there is no hiding behind Tottenham's poor start to the campaign.
"I'd say it's been disappointing; I don't think there's any hiding behind that," he said. "To only win two games out of our first seven is not the standards that we've set in previous years.
"Obviously the two draws at (Manchester) City and Arsenal are not terrible results but being 2-0 up at Arsenal and drawing does feel like a terrible result.
"We've put ourselves in good positions this season, we just haven't managed to see the game out or find a way to win like we have in previous years.
"It's a disappointing start, but there are plenty of games to turn that around, starting with the game on Saturday [against Southampton].
"[Game management] is something we need to get better at, when we go ahead in games, we need to be more confident, to see the game out, whether we drop behind the ball or carry on playing, whatever suits that game.
"We're not inexperienced anymore, we're not young anymore, the excuses aren't there for us anymore. It's down to us players to take responsibility."
Kane though is not ruling out a title challenge, despite their poor start.
He said: "If this was January or February people would be saying there's no chance of us winning it.
"Obviously it's not the ideal start, but stranger things have happened. You can never rule yourselves out until it's done."
- TeamTalk