Jose Mourinho has claimed it is not about Gareth Bale convincing him he deserves more minutes, but that the Welshman is playing as much as his body is capable of right now.
Bale has made just 11 starts for Tottenham, across all competitions, since returning to north London on loan from Real Madrid, in what proved a successful but injury-ravaged time in Spain.
Spurs are six months into the 2020/21 campaign but there still remain concerns over how much football Bale can play before he starts running the risk of further injury, with Mourinho confessing selecting the Welshman remains "a process".
Spurs lead their Europa League tie 4-1 against Austrian side Wolsfberger, ahead of Wednesday's second leg, which means there is little reason to select Bale with Burnley in the Premier League on the horizon this weekend.
"He doesn't need to convince me. It's about playing the minutes I would love him to play," Mourinho said, with Bale's 457 minutes in the Europa League comfortably outstripping his 294 minutes of action in the Premier League.
"It's a process. You see the number of matches he played in previous years. He had a positive impact, he had a cross, a couple of assists, he had a shot, he hit the post.
"He's doing that better but he's not playing 90 minutes. We are managing his evolution. He has nothing to convince me of.
"I can tell you that in this moment Gareth is playing the minutes that he feels he can and what he wants and we want is to play more matches than he did and more crucial matches than he did."
Bale has struggled for game time since his return to Tottenham from Real Madrid in the summer but has begun to look somewhere near his old self in recent games.
The 31-year-old started the first-leg tie against Wolsfberger scoring a wonderful goal and assisting another before being subbed off early. A sign many thought indicated he would start Sunday's derby against West Ham.
Bale, however, returned to the substitutes bench at the London Stadium but was called upon at half-time with Spurs trailing 1-0.
West Ham took a quick 2-0 lead in the second half and despite heavy Spurs pressure, the visitors were only able to claw one goal back. Bale came close to leveling the game late on but his powerful volley clipped the bar on its way over.
Bale's Welsh teammate Ben Davies was also asked about his colleague and stood up for his fellow countryman:
"I think for me I'll never have any doubts about Gareth Bale," the defender said. "There's a narrative around him that he's either brilliant one week or he's not. He hasn't played a lot of football in the past two years. He was probably our best player against West Ham."
Tottenham have been on a poor run of late with pressure mounting on Mourinho after five losses in the previous six league matches but Davies defended his manager.
"He's been great with us this week," he said. "It's not where we want to be right now and you can have tough periods and you have to be reflective and stand up to the pressure. We need to turn this around."
Davies added on Mourinho: "He's desperate to win and that rubs off on the players. As players, you can only thrive off that."
