Mauricio Pochettino reacts to Danny Rose’s performance in midfield

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Tottenham Hotspur drew 1-1 with Arsenal on Saturday afternoon.

Tottenham Hotspur boss Mauricio Pochettino has told Football.London that he remembered Danny Rose’s past of playing in midfield for Leeds when utilising him there against Arsenal.

Spurs were looking to bounce back from their midweek defeat at Chelsea with a win over Arsenal, but it was another unconvincing London derby display.

Pochettino’s side fell behind in the first half when Aaron Ramsey broke clear and rounded Hugo Lloris to score, with Spurs hugely disappointing.

A foul from Shkodran Mustafi gifted Spurs a penalty, and Harry Kane unsurprisingly stuck the ball away, before Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s late penalty for Arsenal was saved by Hugo Lloris in dramatic fashion.

Spurs will be happy with a point in what was an underwhelming performance, with central midfield still a massive concern for Pochettino and co.

Victor Wanyama and Moussa Sissoko didn’t exactly impress, and with no Harry Winks available, left back Rose ended the game in a central midfield role.

It’s not the first time; Rose also featured in that role at Real Madrid in 2017, but that’s one of the few occasions it has happened, with Pochettino taking something of a gamble sticking him there again.

Pochettino has now noted that Rose did play in midfield in his formative years at Leeds, and he thought about that when switching his position on Saturday, adding that he has the ‘technical quality’ of a midfielder and played well, even if he lost possession a couple of times.

“The circumstance, they have to find different solution to play and we wanted to play with back four, with Jan going forward but we need someone in midfield to help Moussa Sissoko and Danny was the only player out there, I think he was younger he played there for Leeds, and after nearly five years we know him very well.”

“He has the technical quality to play like a midfielder, for different circumstance after Wanyama was out to have more consistency in the middle and when he started to play there it was good. He lost some balls because he was in a hurry to play and repeat in that area, it is different when you play on the side. Technically he is so good,” he added.