Rose: Spurs need to be more clinical

Danny Rose has praised the response from Tottenham as they came from behind to beat Sunderland on Saturday and keep their title hopes alive.

Having lost at home to Leicester on Wednesday night, Mauricio Pochettino’s side fell behind to struggling Sunderland when Patrick van Aanholt’s goal silenced White Hart Lane.

But the hosts hit back immediately and levelled just 91 seconds later through Christian Eriksen, who completed a brace after Mousa Dembele had put Spurs ahead, with a late Harry Kane penalty sealing a 4-1 win.

The victory means Tottenham will definitely finish the weekend in the top four and Rose believes the team are now showing a level of consistency to stay up in the fight for the Barclays Premier League title.

“We need to put teams away in the first half to make the game easier in the second half and we’ll get a lot more space if we do that,” he said.

“It was a great response to going behind today, though, and if you want to be where we are in the table and even higher you have to show consistency and great ‘bouncebackability’ from upsets.

“We had an upset against Leicester on Wednesday and we’ve shown a great ability to respond today. The gaffer has made changes and everyone that came in justified the manager’s decision, which shows great character from the team. We’ve shown that throughout the whole season.”

Rose came into the side against the Black Cats as Pochettino continued his policy of rotating his full-backs on a regular basis.

Kieran Trippier was also recalled as Kyle Walker and Ben Davies dropped out but Rose feels that, even with constant changes at full-back, Spurs are a much sterner defensive unit this campaign.

“What I will say is that we’ve made a massive improvement from last season in terms of not leaking two or three goals and needing to score more than that to win a game,” he said.

“In terms of being solid at the back, people who are not playing regularly coming in and doing ever so well is a massive achievement.

“We’re all over the moon with how the season is going but if there’s a message that we can all take from it so far then it’s to not get carried away and take each game as it comes.”

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