What's new

Player Watch: Dele Alli

Status
Not open for further replies.

lol

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2008
6,651
6,082
Hopefully this is true and also, hopefully, this is good news...

https://www.101greatgoals.com/news/jorge-mendes-mino-raiola-rejected-tottenham-star/

Alli rejects the offer
But on Saturday, the Times have reported that Alli is to reject the advances of the two super-agents.

In great news for Spurs fans, readers are told the following:

Dele Alli has no immediate plans to sign up with a leading sports agency despite being courted by Jorge Mendes and Mino Raiola, who have both pledged to facilitate a transfer to one of Europe’s biggest clubs.

The Tottenham Hotspur midfielder’s contract negotiations with the club are being handled by Ian Lynam, his lawyer, of newly established law firm Northridge, and the Hickford family, who informally adopted Alli at the age of 13.

Alli is planning to sign a new contract at Tottenham without any other external advice, although his former agent, Rob Segal, will be due compensation as Alli remains under contract to his company, Impact Sports Management

agents used to be useful before having social media. if you didnt have a phone or agent no one can contact you. nowadays you can negotiate your own deals, i mean hell if you have a 5m business proposal you can pretty much pm him in instagram and i guarant fucking tee u he replies
 

kmk

Well-Known Member
Oct 5, 2014
4,146
27,504
He was excellent and much more influential today playing in central midfield.

His nutmegs and backheels were worth the admission fee alone.
 

Colonel_Klinck

Well-Known Member
May 19, 2004
12,637
23,218
Good disciplined performance today. Seemed to be enjoying himself with a few tricks as well. Great news if he's turned down those super agents.
 

DCSPUR

Well-Known Member
Apr 15, 2005
3,918
5,415
this fellow is bloody fantastic....there was a moment when he made Can look like a Sunday league player and I thought, that is the future of England schooling the future of Germany
 

kaz Hirai

Well-Known Member
Nov 5, 2008
17,692
25,340
He's good player but because his off the ball movement he looks like world class. No midfield role for Dele, please.

Goal against Barnsley was what he does best. Always in the right place at the right time

Still subscribe to that?

He was much better in midfield as picked out on motd
 

WiganSpur

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
15,974
32,682
With Dembele and Wanyama injured this anyone? Dele is better here than as an advanced no10 imo.

Lloris
Toby Sanchez Verts
Aurier-----------------------Rose
Dier
Eriksen---Alli

Kane--Son

 

Kiedis

Well-Known Member
Aug 4, 2013
2,926
8,490
Fantastic game. Didn't think he had that sort of disiplined performance in him anymore. Made so many interceptions and tackles, scored a goal and the through ball for Son was pure filth.

And good of him to treat us to some nutmegs when the game was won.
 

dagraham

Well-Known Member
Sep 20, 2005
19,115
46,080
Easily his best game so far this season. We saw last season there were times when he can play deeper (after all that's where he began his career).

I agree in a CM 2 when we play a flat back four his tendency to squander possession may be an issue, but with the 3 CB's or in a midfield 3 there is much more cover and the upside of it is we have a CM who can still utilize his amazing ability to ghost into the box from deep.

Hopefully he uses this game as a springboard to really kick on like last season.
 
Last edited:

GioW

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2011
2,783
11,655
Absolutely loved Dele in that deeper role. The MOTD analysis was spot on I think he needs to see more of the game and be involved in it which that role allows him too.
 

nicdic

Official SC Padre
Admin
May 8, 2005
41,857
25,919
Fantastic performance from Dele yesterday. Loved seeing him deeper again, reminded me how good he was when he first came into the team. He's so much more than just a goalscorer and space-finder. Hopefully that performance will shut some of his detractors up. Lovely goal, seemed much happier on the pitch, and an all-round great display.
 

OPModric

Well-Known Member
May 10, 2010
1,100
2,448
Fantastic performance from Dele yesterday. Loved seeing him deeper again, reminded me how good he was when he first came into the team. He's so much more than just a goalscorer and space-finder. Hopefully that performance will shut some of his detractors up. Lovely goal, seemed much happier on the pitch, and an all-round great display.

Depends on the perspective. He had a good game, but the game also clearly showed Son should start ahead of him up top with/behind Kane.
 

stevenurse

Palacios' neck fat
May 14, 2007
6,089
10,022
Really good from him yesterday. Pleased for him as he was getting some unnecessary criticism in my opinion.

I'm probably reading too much into it and getting all tin hat about it, but I didn't like his tweet after simply saying #DELE20 with a picture of him celebrating. Every other player mentioned a great team performance, COYS etc.

Excellent news if he's turned down those leeches, but I hope he doesn't get carried away. He's probably one of the most marketable young players around but I don't want to see a Dele clothing range, or aftershave for a while yet.
 

Gb160

Well done boys. Good process
Jun 20, 2012
23,646
93,315
Depends on the perspective. He had a good game, but the game also clearly showed Son should start ahead of him up top with/behind Kane.
Only in games where we play on the counter imo, about 20% of our matches really.
 

kmk

Well-Known Member
Oct 5, 2014
4,146
27,504
https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2017/oct/23/dele-alli-Tottenham

Deep-lying or forward-thinking, Dele Alli is Tottenham’s total footballer

Barney Ronay

The England international showed another side to his game in a more central role against Liverpool, producing a sublime display on his return to the team

There was a fascinating moment during Tottenham’s 4-1 shellacking of Liverpool at Wembley on Sunday; a moment made all the more so by the fact it didn’t involve Harry Kane gorging himself, flesh-eating zombie-style, on some poor dawdling defender, Son Heung-min leading another brutal counterattack or any of the other stuff that took up most of the highlights reel.

Midway through the second half Emre Can came chugging through the centre circle with time to look up and pick a pass. Except, something else happened. Dele Alli had been caught upfield chasing a break. As he sprinted back he skirted around Can’s left side, stretched out a leg and removed the ball from Can’s stride with surgical precision. In the same movement Alli spun through a full circle and began to dribble back the other way.

Nothing much came of it. Tottenham were 4-1 up in any case but it was a stunning little moment of total midfield play. Probably not the kind of last-ditch of positional band-aid you’d want your central midfielder pulling off in every game but as a piece of athleticism, skill and basic talent-arrogance – the conviction that yeah, Germany international, whatever, you’ve got this bloke – it sounded its own elite footballer klaxon.

Some sports people can do this. Watching a certain kind of cricketer there are times where suddenly the boundaries just seem too small, the opposition too human-scale, an entire contest thrown out of shape by one player’s skill and power. Alli is not finished yet, is still working out how best to apply his own wonderful talent but when he plays as a central midfielder – as he did when he first broke into the Spurs team and has too seldom for England – it is hard to avoid these glimpses of a potent future.

This may or may not be Mauricio Pochettino’s broader plan. The deeper role against Liverpool was brought about by the needs of the team. Pochettino had chosen to stick with the fast-breaking style that seems to suit more possession-based opponents and the topography of Wembley. In this system it makes sense to have the speed of Son ahead of Alli. A corollary of which is that Alli’s craft and power are seen in that deeper position, often to great effect.

Alli had a good game on his return to the team. He scored a spanking goal. He covered a lot of ground, effortlessly, and passed well. He even had time to produce that party piece “flip-flap” close to the touchline, pirouetting with flypaper control away from Can, who had a tough match. More significantly perhaps, Alli also made more interceptions, blocks and tackles than any other midfielder on the pitch.

This will come as no great surprise to Spurs fans. Alli often played in central midfield when he first came into the team, the more progressive half of the double pivot in a 4-2-3-1 alongside Eric Dier or Moussa Dembélé. The switch to 3-4-2-1 moved Alli up the pitch more regularly, to brilliant effect. Last season he scored an astonishing 22 goals.

Again, no surprise here. Alli is a wonderful footballer, a player who can basically do anything on a football pitch, but he has other gears too. As Paul Pogba’s price tag shows, in modern football there is a rarity value to a player of his gifts operating in that all-purpose midfielder role, and it is here Alli looks a thrilling prospect at times.

English football does have a history of pushing its better players forward, in search always of more tangible impact. Two England matches spring to mind in this regard, also two of the most impressive performances of the last 20 years. In Munich in 2001 England beat Germany 5-1 with Steven Gerrard playing as a supremely athletic, telescopically aggressive deep midfielder alongside Paul Scholes. England never started a game with that same central midfield again.

In March last year England also beat Germany, this time 3-2 in a friendly in Berlin. On that occasion Alli played as a supremely athletic, telescopically aggressive deep midfielder. He hasn’t started in the middle since for England, who went to the Euros three months after Berlin and fell to pieces, lacking most obviously a ballsy, driving high-class central midfielder.

No doubt this tendency is in part to do with a lack of confidence in the talent available, the assumption that greater defensive “insurance” – an inferior, less ambitious player – is required in central midfield. Gerrard was plonked back into deep central midfield but only when the necessary snap and speed and agility had gone, and found himself exposed at times by its demands.

Pochettino can hardly be accused of a lack of boldness, just as the evidence of Wembley is that Alli will still score goals from deep, and may even prefer to attack with space in front of him rather than with his back to goal. Either way he looked refreshed. It has been a tricky third season for Ali as a first-team regular, with a few snags to be untangled, some adolescent gripes to be overcome. Before Sunday he hadn’t scored in the league since the end of August and had one assist this season.

Again this is no great surprise. Alli has taken a different road to this point. A sporting adolescence spent outside the clone army of Premier League academy products is one of his strengths, but it will come with a little rawness. Pochettino’s management has been the perfect balm to this, a combination of bristly paternalism and an invigorating faith in his players’ talent.

There are only pluses here for Tottenham. The one element Pochettino wanted to add to that hard-pressing team of the last two years was tactical variation. That he should find it by drawing greater depth and range out of the best young English player in the league is another intriguing subplot.
 

Cravenspurs

Well-Known Member
Jul 31, 2011
2,864
3,680
All his touches:

I have been slagged off for saying that he needs to drop deeper as I think he gets more involved in the game and it actually simplifies the game for him. The MOTD2 pundits agree with that sentiment...for what that is worth as they are gunners, but I think there is some truth to their analysis. With Dele deeper you get the full effect of his aggression. He gets to still play his tricks (Can got skinned multiple times). His long runs are still effective as he offers it either by carrying the ball or by being an outlet. And he still gets into the box for his signature goals. The positioning also allows him to pull out those through balls that we haven't seen in a long time. The Son ball yesterday was class and that release for Kane was sublime. You just don't get the full Dele game when his back is to goal and he is essentially playing as a CF.

If he plays this position more it also allows Son to be where he is most effective, which is up there with Kane. Son is our pace merchant and for me offers more of a goal threat than Dele when in partnership with Kane.

Finally, the midfield is exactly what @Bus-Conductor and I were banging on about last year. For most teams there is little need for a multiple destroyers. With guile and work rate, you can succeed due to the fact that quick touches get you out of trouble. Vic is obviously a beast, but I would love to see more of an Eriksen, Dele, Winks midfield three that controls the middle of the park via ball movement.

The counter attacking style isn't a style you will play for every game, but god we have improved in that area dramatically and a lot has to do with the personnel we had in midfield yesterday.

Edit: Article above me is far more eloquent


 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top