Danny Rose has said Tottenham “have not been up to standard” so far this season and Mauricio Pochettino has made the players well aware of that.
Spurs won their opening three games against Newcastle United, Fulham and Manchester United but followed up their good start with a run of three successive defeats to Watford, Liverpool and Inter Milan.
Pochettino’s men were back to winning ways with a 2-1 victory at Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday, but Rose believes the Londoners haven’t been good enough yet this term.
“We’ve not been up to standard. We’re very aware of that. It’s evident and it’s true that we’ve not played well,” Rose said (via the Independent).
“The manager’s made us well aware of it. We beat Newcastle, Fulham, even United but we’ve not played well.”
Pochettino was surprisingly critical of his side’s performance in the 3-0 win at Old Trafford, but it seems he was right to be concerned.
And Rose thinks the defeats that followed have woken Tottenham up.
He added: “We obviously don’t want to lose against Watford and Liverpool but he sees it as a wake-up call and a bit of a reality check for us all.
“We’ve had three bad results but we’re back on track hopefully now and we’ve got a run of games now where it’s just play, recover, play, recover, and as players that’s all you could wish for.”
Rose is back in favour this season after losing his place in the side to Ben Davies last year.
A combination of a controversial interview and his struggle to recover from a long-term knee injury saw Rose’s playing time reduced in 2017/18.
But an assist and a decent display against Brighton may have seen him move ahead of Davies in the pecking order once again.
