Fulham loanee Lewis Holtby has admitted that he is baffled as to why he was not playing more regularly at Tottenham Hotspur.

The German playmaker, 23, has joined the bottom-of-the-table Cottagers on a temporary deal until the end of the season after finding first-team football hard to come by at White Hart Lane.

Holtby has revealed that he had a good relationship with Spurs boss Tim Sherwood, who described him as the best trainer in the club, but never felt that he was given a long enough run in the starting XI.

"Tottenham was certainly a difficult time [for me] at the end," he told T-Online. "I've always given everything and put myself forward in each session.

"The manager even confirmed that I have almost continuously been the best at training. But I still only played very rarely. I was allowed to play three games in a row in between, gave good performances and was then again sitting outside [the team] all of a sudden.

"For a hungry and young player, this is not easy of course. I need games, I want to be on the pitch and help the team. Since I couldn't do this, I had to change something."

Holtby, a £1.5m signing from Schalke in January 2012, only started half of the 22 appearances that he made in all competitions for Tottenham before his January departure, scoring three times.