Lloris blasts Tottenham team-mates for lack of character and effort

The France international believes too many of his fellow players have given up too easily in big matches against their rivals and wants an improvement in mentality

Hugo Lloris believes his Tottenham team-mates have failed to match his level of commitment and effort during a season of crushing disappointments.

Spurs lie sixth in the Premier League, their top-four hopes all but extinguished with three matches to play in a season undermined by the sacking of Andre Villas-Boas and a series of heavy defeats to their main rivals.

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The prevailing mood at White Hart Lane is a far cry from the optimism of August, when over €120 million of new signings offset the world-record sale of Gareth Bale to Real Madrid and prompted some to tip Tottenham for a title challenge.

And Lloris insists too many of his fellow players in Tim Sherwood's squad have not done justice to their talent or their club this term.

"It will be difficult to do worse [next season]! Especially against the top four or five teams," he told reporters.

"We have had a lot of bad defeats. This season there has sometimes been the feeling that we have given up. We can’t allow this kind of behaviour.

"We have to show more character. We did it in other games. But we have to keep our mentality in every game at the best level because in this league you have to be 100 per cent every time you play."

Lloris earned the Man of the Match award for a series of impressive saves in Tottenham's 3-1 win over Fulham on Saturday, but believes he should not have been made to work so hard. 

"It is always a pleasure to receive that kind of thing but if the goalkeeper is Man of the Match then it means the team didn’t do the job properly," he added.

"I’m a competitor and I try always to do my best for the team. I want to see my team-mates do the same.

"It’s strange because we have a feeling that we can play at a very high level. But we can also play at a very bad level during the same game. It has put us in trouble a lot of times this season."