Mauricio Pochettino congratulated his Spurs players for playing with the right “style” and “philosophy” in their 2-1 defeat of Schalke ahead of their season opener against West Ham next weekend.

Goals in each half from Emmanuel Adebayor and Roberto Soldado were enough to see Spurs complete their pre-season preparations with a win over Schalke, who finished third in the Bundesliga last season.

Speaking afterwards to the club’s website, Pochettino said: “It was a tough game, Schalke are a very good team and we can only say congratulations to the players.

“We had some good periods in the game. We played well.

“The team is showing a lot of energy. This is our style, our philosophy and now we have a week to go until the start of the season.”

New signing Eric Dier impressed at the heart of defence alongside Younes Kaboul and the Argentine was quick to praise his £4m summer addition.

Pochettino said: “Eric is still young but he has a lot of potential. He did well, we’re very pleased and now we recover, one day’s rest and we then train hard all week to prepare for West Ham.”

The win over Jens Keller’s side means Spurs are unbeaten in pre-season, with goals from Adebayor and Soldado giving the hosts 2-0 lead before former Tottenham midfielder Kevin-Prince Boating scored Schalke’s consolation goal.

Tottenham started brightly and saw several chances go astray before Soldado beat the impressive Ralf Fahrmann to give Pochettino’s side the lead.

On 29 minutes Erik Lamela picked out Aaron Lennon, who in turn slipped the ball into Lewis Holtby, who crossed low for Adebayor to poke home for the hosts.

Spurs were good value for their lead, though Roman Neustadter and Boateng both went close fort the Germans before half-time.

Soldado doubled Tottenham’s lead in the 66th minute, following in with his head after Fahrmann saved Andros Townsend’s initial shot.

Max Meyer then missed a gilt-edged chance for Schalke, before Boateng swept home first time from Dennis Aogo’s left-wing cross.

Spurs: Lloris; Naughton, Kaboul (Fryers 79), Dier, Rose (Davies 46); Holtby (Ceballos 84), Bentaleb (Carroll 74); Lennon (Townsend 46), Eriksen (Sandro 67), Lamela (Kane 46); Adebayor (Soldado 46).

Subs: Friedel (GK), Veljkovic, Fredericks.