Dele Alli - Player watch

[Shadydan]

His sending off just goes hand in hand with our maturity, I just think we need to really go up in these kind of games and not let the emotion get to us. Our mentality and game management has improved under Poch but we can be really immature at times, suppose that will improve with age.

 

[alfie103]

He said "I went for the ball" I believe, I think he was as mortified that it happened as the rest of us.

People need to calm down. Had Alli come steaming in from a distance away and made a tackle that high then he would deserve the kicking that he's getting from a lot of people but this was nothing more than reckless, it happens. His deliberate punch on Jacob or the kick out at the fiorentina player were more calculated than last night's challenge.

Granted, he was frustrated at the point of when this happened cos he felt he was fouled first but his touch was heavy and he jumped out for the ball whilst falling backwards and his momentum as much as anything caused the high contact. Make no mistake, it was absolutely a red card and Alli should be very dissapointed in himself but I just don't think we need to start stringing him up like he's some sort of Ben Thatcher type of dirty player. The kid is 20 years old and this will likely be a good lesson for him. He's been far better with his temper this season until last night and I still think it was more careless than him being angry.

It was reckless but did he need to go in that high to win the ball? No he didn't. It was an appalling challenge and if it was the other way around you would be screaming blue murder. He is young and hopefully he will learn but he definitely lost his temper and put in an awful tackle.

 

[Japhet]

He'll have to shape up now. His card has been marked (and not before time). Needs to cut out the petulance and control his frustration because he won't get cut any slack from now on. He's only a kid but he needs to grow up now.

 

[Wheeler Dealer]

He appears to want to look for trouble, which is OK if you have the mentality to acccept a bit back. The nasty bastards of prior year were hard and ruthless. The likes of Keane, Souness and Vierra.. You would never see any of these going to ground like a dying swan every time the are touched like Alli likes to do.

He is an obvious talent that can go all the way to the top but his silly little antics will play against him in longer run

 

[Shadydan]

He appears to want to look for trouble, which is OK if you have the mentality to acccept a bit back. The nasty bastards of prior year were hard and ruthless. The likes of Keane, Souness and Vierra.. You would never see any of these going to ground like a dying swan every time the are touched like Alli likes to do.

He is an obvious talent that can go all the way to the top but his silly little antics will play against him in longer run

He doesn't really does he.

 

[thebenjamin]

He appears to want to look for trouble, which is OK if you have the mentality to acccept a bit back. The nasty bastards of prior year were hard and ruthless. The likes of Keane, Souness and Vierra.. You would never see any of these going to ground like a dying swan every time the are touched like Alli likes to do.

He is an obvious talent that can go all the way to the top but his silly little antics will play against him in longer run

Vieira was one of the consummate cheats of his generation. His diving was prolific.

 

[JonnySpurs]

It was reckless but did he need to go in that high to win the ball? No he didn't. It was an appalling challenge and if it was the other way around you would be screaming blue murder. He is young and hopefully he will learn but he definitely lost his temper and put in an awful tackle.

I'm not justifying his actions and it's a bit daft to ask "did he need to go in that high to win the ball". He didn't mean to do any of it. I believe he was trying to win the ball but he shouldn't have. He was fully out of control as the ball popped off his foot and he should've been able to recognise he couldn't win it and then his momentum has carried him through. I don't believe for one second that he knew what he was doing or meant to challenge that high. It's a learning experience for the kid, the next time a 50-50 ball pops up like that he should remember last night and not jump in. He was rash and wasn't thinking and that has led to this happening.

 

[tiger666]

I'm not justifying his actions and it's a bit daft to ask "did he need to go in that high to win the ball". He didn't mean to do any of it. I believe he was trying to win the ball but he shouldn't have. He was fully out of control as the ball popped off his foot and he should've been able to recognise he couldn't win it and then his momentum has carried him through. I don't believe for one second that he knew what he was doing or meant to challenge that high. It's a learning experience for the kid, the next time a 50-50 ball pops up like that he should remember last night and not jump in. He was rash and wasn't thinking and that has led to this happening.

Because he lost his temper at not getting the decision before.

 

[JonnySpurs]

He appears to want to look for trouble, which is OK if you have the mentality to acccept a bit back. The nasty bastards of prior year were hard and ruthless. The likes of Keane, Souness and Vierra.. You would never see any of these going to ground like a dying swan every time the are touched like Alli likes to do.

He is an obvious talent that can go all the way to the top but his silly little antics will play against him in longer run

Completely disagree. He doesn't look for trouble. Right now he's immature and hot headed, nothing more. Alli wants to play the full 90 mins every game, he wants to score goals, set goals up and play well, thats it. He's not a dirty player and we only have to look at the boro game a few weeks ago to see how well he's matured since last season in how he dealt with Victor Valdes shoving him in the face. Last season he might have shoved him back and got a red card but he didn't.

Last night was a culmination of frustration at the scoreline/situation we were in and the woeful refeering decisions didn't help. He lost his cool and made a reckless, out of control challenge. It wasn't calculated in any way and I feel as though some are suggesting this.

 

[Kaboul'sForehead]

Personally I think he was off balance and was a bit reckless but nevertheless unintentially planted on the guys shin. People talking about Dele as though he is similar to Barton or Charlie Adam are incorrect.

 

[tiger666]

Personally I think he was off balance and was a bit reckless but nevertheless unintentially planted on the guys shin. People talking about Dele as though he is similar to Barton or Charlie Adam are incorrect.

Who's saying that?

 

[JonnySpurs]

Because he lost his temper at not getting the decision before.

What's your point? Yes he lost his temper but he wasn't taking it out on that player. He mis-controls the ball and then lunges into a challenge that he shouldn't have.

 

[tiger666]

What's your point? Yes he lost his temper but he wasn't taking it out on that player. He mis-controls the ball and then lunges into a challenge that he shouldn't have.

You said it was "nothing more than reckless, it happens" as though it was a run of the mill challenge.

 

[dagraham]

His sending off just goes hand in hand with our maturity, I just think we need to really go up in these kind of games and not let the emotion get to us. Our mentality and game management has improved under Poch but we can be really immature at times, suppose that will improve with age.

We suffer from a lack of leaders and organisers on the pitch. Probably wouldn't have prevented Alli's moment of madness, but would have stopped the petulance that blighted a lot of the second half. There is a also no one handing out a bollocking on the pitch to players who have made stupid errors and decisions etc. Our Belgian contingent are all experienced, but I wouldn't call them leaders on the pitch. I know we are a young team and the idea is most likely to let them learn together, but I think it might be wise to get in one or two experienced heads rather than focus solely on youth.

As for Alli specifically, I thought I'd seen some signs of greater maturity this season, but obviously he's still got a long way to go. He's still very young though. Rooney carried a petulant streak in him in his early career and it took him a good few years to grow out of it.

He has to learn and cut it out of his game, but I'd rather have a great player with a petulant streak than a perfectly behaved player who is just quite good.

 

[JonnySpurs]

You said it was "nothing more than reckless, it happens" as though it was a run of the mill challenge.

Well I stand by it, it does happen. Players make reckless challenges all the time when they didn't intend to hurt anyone. I wasn't suggesting it was run of the mill and if you've taken that from my post then it wasn't intended. It was a terrible challenge but I'm simply trying to argue that he's not a dirty player and that it wasn't on purpose. I feel like that theme is starting to develop on here and I don't think that's fair on Alli.

 

[TaoistMonkey]

He 100% went for the ball and it's obvious by the way his leg went into the challenge.

Unfortunately for him he completely fucked it up and rightly got sent off.

 

[Adam456]

He said "I went for the ball" I believe, I think he was as mortified that it happened as the rest of us.

People need to calm down. Had Alli come steaming in from a distance away and made a tackle that high then he would deserve the kicking that he's getting from a lot of people but this was nothing more than reckless, it happens. His deliberate punch on Jacob or the kick out at the fiorentina player were more calculated than last night's challenge.

Granted, he was frustrated at the point of when this happened cos he felt he was fouled first but his touch was heavy and he jumped out for the ball whilst falling backwards and his momentum as much as anything caused the high contact. Make no mistake, it was absolutely a red card and Alli should be very dissapointed in himself but I just don't think we need to start stringing him up like he's some sort of Ben Thatcher type of dirty player. The kid is 20 years old and this will likely be a good lesson for him. He's been far better with his temper this season until last night and I still think it was more careless than him being angry.

I am not particularly angry with him or massively upset but let's not pretend here. He was obviously pissed off about the foul not given and followed through to hurt the player. He got what he deserved and that's that

I hope he realises that he owes us one when Madrid come calling

 

[alfie103]

I'm not justifying his actions and it's a bit daft to ask "did he need to go in that high to win the ball". He didn't mean to do any of it. I believe he was trying to win the ball but he shouldn't have. He was fully out of control as the ball popped off his foot and he should've been able to recognise he couldn't win it and then his momentum has carried him through. I don't believe for one second that he knew what he was doing or meant to challenge that high. It's a learning experience for the kid, the next time a 50-50 ball pops up like that he should remember last night and not jump in. He was rash and wasn't thinking and that has led to this happening.

It isn't daft, I watched it again and it makes no sense to go as high as he did without meaning to do it. I personally think he knew what he was doing.

 

[talkshowhost86]

He 100% went for the ball and it's obvious by the way his leg went into the challenge.

Unfortunately for him he completely fucked it up and rightly got sent off.

Yeah I genuinely think it was incompetence rather than malice, and I say that knowing Dele does have that streak in him.

Either way he's badly let the team down though.

 

[Nebby]

Personally I think he was off balance and was a bit reckless but nevertheless unintentially planted on the guys shin. People talking about Dele as though he is similar to Barton or Charlie Adam are incorrect.

When I saw it last night I actually winced. It looked absolutely shocking. And having just thrown a strop for not getting a free kick himself, at the time I thought that he'd actually lost it and tried to hurt the other guy.

But having just looked at the TV replays, I think you're spot on. He takes a terrible touch and goes into the challenge off balance. I don't blame the ref for sending him off, but I don't think he was out of control as such.