Head coach Mauricio Pochettino warned against harsh judgments on the United States men’s national team (USMNT) after falling 2-0 to Mexico in Guadalajara on Tuesday, reiterating his lawsuit at the federation that is just getting started.

“Overall, I think Mexico were a little better than us and fully deserved the win,” Pochettino said at a press conference after the match. “But for us it is a process that we started ten days ago and today was a great opportunity for our player to visit a very difficult place to play. I think only we can improve and take from this experience learn.”

US Soccer announced Pochettino’s arrival in September, just a few weeks before the October international window. He led the USMNT for the first time on October 12 in a 2–0 win over Panama in Austin before traveling to Mexico for the match against El Tricolor.

He coached the entire October squad just a few days before Marlon Fossey, Zack Steffen, Weston McKennie and Ricardo Pepi left camp due to injury, while Christian Pulisic returned to AC Milan to avoid a work overload.

Pochettino admitted he was disappointed not to have the entire squad available for the match against Mexico as he was given the opportunity to learn from the challenges of a match in Guadalajara.

“We’re all disappointed because I don’t think we had all the players we wanted when we started,” he said. “We lost a number of players for various reasons and came up a bit short here.

“I thank the players (who were here) because they were great and professional and their behavior was great. And that’s it. Of course it’s just a game that we lose in Mexico.”

“We wanted to win. I think we have to be positive about these kinds of games. We have to play more games like this to increase the knowledge we have.”

Pochettino insists he needs more time to evaluate and study the players before drawing any conclusions.

“Give us time, let’s evaluate all the players, have them, know them, and from there I will give you a better opinion on what is much more fundamental than what I see.”

The USMNT will now shift focus to the Concacaf Nations League quarter-finals against Jamaica in the November international window.