GARETH Bale believes that everything is finally coming together for him at Tottenham as he prepares to take part in the fight for the top four. The 20-year-old has played just 100 minutes of Premier League football this season...

By Ben Pearce

GARETH Bale believes that everything is finally coming together for him at Tottenham as he prepares to take part in the fight for the top four.

The 20-year-old has played just 100 minutes of Premier League football this season, having fallen out of favour under Harry Redknapp in 2009.

However, the Welsh international accepts that he was far from the finished product when he arrived at Spurs.

And, although he admits he has endured a frustrating 12 months, he believes that his willingness to learn over that period will make him a major asset to the Lilywhites in the coming weeks.

"I needed to improve on certain aspects of my game. I've been working on that with the coaching staff at Tottenham - defending mainly, but everything really," he told the Journal.

"Every player needs to improve at everything so we've worked on a lot of things and I think it's coming together now. Hopefully I can continue from here.

"I felt good out there at the weekend. We've been working hard in training just to get our fitness levels a bit higher so if we do come into the team we'll be able to cope.

"Obviously it wasn't easy sitting on the bench every week, but I think it's an experience that I've learned from. I'll take that onboard and hopefully it will do me good for the future.

"Nobody likes criticism but at the end of the day it's for your own benefit. You've got to take it the right way and use it to your advantage. I'd like to say I've done that and hopefully I can continue to improve as a player."

Despite admitting to personal improvement and development at Tottenham, Bale admits that his long-term future could lie away from White Hart Lane.

But first he faces a momentous month in the first team, deputising for the injured Benoit Assou-Ekotto, and it starts with the trip to Liverpool.

"You never know [in the future], I just want to keep playing. Hopefully I'll get a run in the team and we'll see what happens," he said.

"It's a big month for me, starting with a big game. Liverpool are going to be challenging us for the league spot this year so it's going to be a massive game.

"We'll go there full of confidence and we'll go there looking for the win and hopefully we can do that.

"They're a great team and they've got great players, they're just going through a little rough patch at the moment, like all teams do. They'll be looking to get out of that and kick on. It won't be easy and we'll go there expecting a very very hard game.