Despite Danny Rose recently admitting that he feels like he’s nowhere near to being called up to the England squad, the Tottenham Hotspur left-back has vastly improved under Mauricio Pochettino this season, and a national call-up may not be as far away as Rose thinks.
The former England U21 international, who was first called up to Roy Hodgson’s senior squad in August 2014, has yet to earn a senior cap for his country. Since then, Rose has had to forget about national duty and concentrate on stamping down a starting place in Pochettino’s first XI – as well as watching on to see a whole host of exciting English left-back’s seemingly pushing him further down the pecking order for an international call-up.
The Spurs defender somewhat surprisingly told the Evening Standard: “I’m going to be honest, I don’t see myself anywhere near the international squads.
“It’s just how it is. Leighton Baines is quite rightly the first choice, then Ryan Bertrand is doing very well at Southampton. Kieran Gibbs and Luke Shaw are ahead of me, too, and I’m a big fan of Aaron Cresswell at West Ham.”
It doesn’t happen too often in football where a professional player talks himself down quite like that, but at least he’s honest, and in the meantime, he’s been getting his head down and turning his attention to his form for his club. Rose has made 25 league and cup appearances for the Lilywhites thus far, and finds himself ahead of summer signing Ben Davies for the first choice left-back position at White Hart Lane at present.
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Rose may have been at Tottenham since signing as a 17-year-old from Leeds United in 2007, but despite being at the Lane for quite a lengthy period of time, the defender has only made 58 Premier League appearances for the club, and has found himself being loaned out on numerous occasions.
But this season, Rose’s energetic and stalwart performances at the back for Tottenham, have seen him rightly lock down a starting berth of late, and his recent excellent displays haven’t gone unnoticed. As well as scoring Spurs’ first goal on their road to recovery against West Ham on Sunday, Rose has put in some dominant displays recently and made the left-back position his own.
During his time at White Hart Lane, the full-back has divided opinion amongst Tottenham fans – many believe he’s far more effective going forward than he is defensively and, to be fair, it’s hard to disagree with them. There’s no doubt about it, the Spurs No. 3 loves to get up the pitch, but this term, he’s been a lot more focused on his defensive duties.
Once Ben Davies has had a full-season at Spurs, Rose is going to have to up his game even further to keep his starting place. But the ex-Leeds youngster has at least proved to the Tottenham faithful that he’s more than just an average defender who loves to go forward – he’s shown this season, that he’s ever-improving, a lot more consistent, and he’s slowly but surely turning himself into a more than capable left-back.
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