Tottenham Hotspur’s Danny Rose feels he can still get better after his “horrendous” performance last night.
Danny Rose has admitted to The Times that he was “horrendous” for half of Tottenham Hotspur’s 2-1 win over Borussia Dortmund last night, admitting he isn’t up to speed yet.
Spurs edged out the Bundesliga outfit to cement themselves as winners of their Champions League group with a come-from-behind victory at Signal Iduna Park.
Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino played the 27-year-old ahead of left-back Ben Davies in what was only his third start for the Lilywhites since January following a lengthy layoff through injury.
And the England international – who lasted the full 90 minutes – admits that he is “still catching up” after such a long absence, admitting he was well below his best against the Germans.
“I thought I was close [to being fit] and then in first half I was horrendous,” Rose told the Times. “I thought I was getting hooked at half-time, and it gave me a bit of a reality check, maybe I’m not as close as I thought I was.
“In the second half I thought I did better, I contributed quite a lot in the second half, and I just hope I can get many more minutes. There’s a lot of games now over the next six weeks, and I hope I can play a part in as many as possible.
“At Tottenham, you have to have an exceptional level of fitness. I’m not there yet, because I’ve been out for a long time. I’m still catching up.”
Rose is being a bit too harsh on himself and “horrendous” is probably too strong a word to describe his first-half showing.
If he was as bad as he makes out then Pochettino would have hauled him off at one point, given what was at stake.
Topping the group means that Spurs will avoid Europe’s elite – such as Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain – in the round of 16 and the prospect of moving into the quarter-finals isn’t unlikely.
By that stage Rose will surely be back to his best.
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