Tottenham Hotspur defender Younes Kaboul has urged his teammates to play with the same heart that manager Tim Sherwood has shown in recent weeks.

Sherwood slammed his "gutless" players following heavy defeats to Chelsea and Benfica, which seems to have garnered a reaction from the dressing room after an improved performance against Arsenal and a spirited draw in Portugal.

While stressing there are no doubts about the ability in the Spurs squad, Kaboul has admitted that sometimes their character has been questionable, but is determined for that not to be a criticism of his side again as they fight to the wire for Champions League qualification.

He told reporters: "[The manager] played with his heart and he wants to bring back this culture to us. Some of us have it already but we need 11 players with the same mentality on the pitch each game, which sometimes is hard.

"The ability is there, the quality is there but sometimes we are being too nice to each other. We can't have any more mistakes until the end of the season, we have to avoid that.

"I've been here long enough to understand and to know the club, what the club wants. I think we can always do better for Tottenham. What we want is Champions League football and we can do it. We have a lot of quality in the dressing room and we'll work hard to get there."

Spurs are currently seven points adrift of the top four and have played more games than most of their rivals.