NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Mauricio Pochettino admitted Tottenham are "a little behind" Manchester City in their preparations for the new season after losing 3-0 to their title rivals on Saturday.
John Stones, Raheem Sterling and Brahim Diaz scored in the International Champions Cup match, and Tottenham had goalkeepers Hugo Lloris and Michel Vorm to thank for keeping the scoreline respectable.
Pochettino admitted that Spurs -- who are the only Premier League club yet to make a signing -- are playing catch-up ahead of the season opener at Newcastle on Aug. 13, but he insisted the result at Nissan Stadium was unimportant.
"Of course, Man City have more senior players than us and they invest more money than us," Pochettino said afterwards. "You can see that we have a lot of young players on the bench.
"It's true the squads are completely different but we are building the squad. Maybe today they have a little bit of an advantage, they are ahead of us because they have signed and kept the players that they want.
"We are a little bit behind but working hard to sign some players who can help us and bring some energy, and make us more competitive.
"We prioritised training, and tried to get fit, over the result -- as I told you before [the games against] Paris Saint-Germain and Roma.
"It's true you want to win but Manchester City was better than us, showed better quality. We lost and deserved to lose -- and they deserved to win.
"It's not trying to justify [the result] -- for me they were better -- but our main players 14 days ago started training and it's very difficult to get fit if you only focus on playing games. We pushed a lot to train to train and develop our physical condition. Yesterday it was a tough training session and we knew it would be difficult to compete with City, who have a lot of quality.
"For us, more than the result, we try to help the team to arrive in two weeks in our best condition. The reality is that we want to win in two weeks against Newcastle.
"You need to understand that Harry Winks was injured and is getting fit. It was a big problem for us last season. Mousa Dembele is the same. We cannot speak about playing a Premier League game today in Manchester or London."
Kyle Walker, who left Tottenham for Manchester City for £50 million a fortnight ago, was raucously booed by a partisan crowd, but Pochettino said: "I totally understand the fans showed they're disappointed with the situation.
"But I think Tottenham fans love him, he spent nine years at the club. It's a spontaneous feeling they showed but it's not personal, it's not a big issue. It's only to show him they're disappointed, and to show him they're disappointed."
Pochettino confirmed that Victor Wanyama missed the match with damage to the cartilage in his left knee but said he was hopeful the Kenyan would be fit for the season-opener at St James' Park.