Danny Rose believes Tottenham can win the title this season but admits they remain stuck in “third gear”.
Spurs are 10 points behind leaders Chelsea despite last night’s comfortable victory over Hull.
Rose has had a fine season at left‑back and was impressive as a wing-back as Spurs switched to a 3‑4‑2-1 system against Hull. But asked why they had struggled to recapture the spark of last term, he said: “We are probably still in third gear compared to last season and I’m not sure why.
“We haven’t hit the heights of last season in how we’ve been playing. Hopefully once the New Year comes we can push on. We had a good December and January last season and we’re looking to do that again.
“As for whether we’re still in the title race, I don’t see why not. We’re in a good position. Manchester City and Arsenal play each other this weekend, so one of them will drop points. Hopefully we can capitalise on that.
“We know we’re not at the level of last season and nobody is playing as well as they did but we’re in the mix and we’re probably only playing at 60 per cent of what we can achieve.”
Tottenham face Burnley on Sunday and then have a 10-day break before their next match, at Southampton.
It was the second time Spurs had used 3-4-2-1 this season, after also lining up that way in the 1-1 draw at Arsenal on November 6.
It might be expected that Mauricio Pochettino would spend hours drilling his players in the new formation but Rose tells a different story.
He added: “It’s nice to have that Plan B. Sometimes when we play our usual 4-2-3-1 formation, it’s easier for teams to sit back. I enjoy playing this way a lot.
“Everything is up to the manager and we had no idea we would be playing this way until we had the meeting a few hours before the game.
“But whichever formation we play, everyone knows his job.”
