Tottenham Hotspur captain Son Heung-min delivered a scathing review of his side’s performance in a 1-0 defeat to AZ Alkmaar on Thursday night. Lucas Bergvall’s accidental own goal in the first half ended up being the deciding factor in a heavily one-sided Europa League match. Tottenham Hotspur struggled to pose a threat to AZ Alkmaar’s goal, managing only one shot on target during the entire 90 minutes against a team currently in sixth place in the Dutch league. Son found himself in a key moment of Tottenham’s first-half struggles. In an unusual opportunity to score, James Maddison opted to take a quick free-kick near the edge of the penalty area, passing it to Son who was caught off guard, leading to a swift loss of possession and disapproval from the energized home supporters. “Our performance today was far below our usual standard,” Son expressed to TNT Sports. “It’s truly disappointing how we played, myself included. This match should serve as a major wake-up call for us because next week’s game is the most crucial of the season.” “We didn’t create anything in the first half, sloppiness, not performing the way we should. Everyone is very disappointed about the individual performance and the team performance. “There are no excuses, we were not good enough. It’s just 1-0, it’s still not finished, and next week we have to be much better.” Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou echoed the sentiment of his skipper, insisting that his side’s performance “was nowhere near the level it needed to be”. Rather than a question of “effort or attitude”, the Australian head coach accused his side of not having “the right mindset to tackle an away fixture in Europe”. “You are going to face some pressure when you play away from home in Europe and weather the storm and get to grips with it,” Postecoglou explained, “but we never really did so that was a disappointment.” Tottenham had enjoyed the rare luxury of an eight-day break before the trip to Alkmaar. Despite also recording a 1-0 reverse in their previous outing at home to Manchester City, the mood in N17 had been lifted by consecutive victories over Manchester United and Ipswich Town last month. However, this week’s dismal defeat has underscored the importance of the Europa League to a Tottenham team already out of both domestic cup competitions and mired in the bottom half of the Premier League table. As Son was quick to stress, the tie is not over, but Spurs will need to be much-improved if they are to overturn the one-goal deficit when they host AZ in north London next Thursday.