Dele Alli was as hot a prospect you could get when he moved to Tottenham Hotspur in the summer of 2015 from Milton Keynes Dons for £5 million. Now seven years later Alli even at the young age of 25 falls into the ‘must do better’ category as he looks to revive his career at Everton.
Alli first came to fame when numerous scouts went to watch him in the League Cup game at Milton Keynes as the Dons played against Manchester United in the early part of the 2014/15 season.
In one of the biggest shocks and one sided results ever seen, Alli was outstanding, playing the full game in a resounding 4-0 win.
That immediately sent scouts scurrying back to their clubs to report on the then 16 year old. Spurs decided the risk was worth it and in a very Football Manager computer game-type transfer took a punt on the hot prospect.
Alli’s rise to Premier League stardom was pretty immediate and he astoundingly won the PFA young player of the year award in his first season with Spurs in 2016.
Also in that season he made his England debut and was unlucky not to be in the squad for Euro 2016.
Maybe that worked in his favour after England’s disastrous tournament, as Gareth Southgate made Alli a regular and he performed exceptionally well in England’s run to the World Cup semi-finals in Russia in 2018. The memorable goal in the 2-0 quarter-final win over Sweden was scored when Alli was still only 22 years old.
From then on Alli has lost his edge and his place in not only the England squad, but has not appeared regularly for Spurs either.
Part of this can be put down to the chopping and changing of managers. Unquestionably, Alli produced his best under Mauricio Pochettino at Spurs, and while he started well under Jose Mourinho ultimately he has never been the same player since Pochettino left.
If we go back to when he first had success at Spurs Alli was a key cog in Harry Kane’s sensational scoring record at Tottenham.
In 269 appearances in all competitions for Spurs he assisted 61 times (you can imagine how many there were for Kane) while also scoring 67 goals. A ratio of scoring or assisting in almost one of every two Spurs games is a sensational stat when you consider the age Alli was when he joined Spurs.
In fact Alli’s best goalscoring record in the Premier League was in his second season when he was only 20 years old and netted 18 goals.
The key for Everton and Frank Lampard to get Alli into this type of form is to use him working in dangerous areas as an out and out attacking midfielder.
That is where Spurs had him at his best, working with Harry Kane in front of him and being fed by Christian Eriksen behind.
Once Pochettino had brought in Son Hueng-Min and Lucas Moura more regularly from the summer of 2018, Alli had less affect on games despite still playing many the following season. Also, an injury in January really derailed his season and he missed three months of action.
When you look back to 2015/16 and Spurs narrowly losing the title to Leicester City, one of the main reasons for their success was opposing teams could not work out how to contain Alli, Eriksen and Kane.
Lampard has to use Alli in his attacking midfield position. One, for his goals and assist ratios when he plays there and two, for his pressing and ability to intercept the opposition.
Alli, of players in his position out of the top five European leagues has the most pressures of 27.66 per 90 minutes. He also has a very good interception success rate of 1.76 compared to the 0.95 average of other attacking midfielders.
This Coaches Voice explains how Alli’s most powerful strength in his game is his awareness of space not only for himself, but also the striker in front of him.
Lampard will hope Donny Van De Beek, for the rest of the season at least, can become the link like Eriksen was at Spurs. Fortunately Everton have a couple of decent strikers in Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin for him to find too.
Alli could even force his way back into the England fold where Southgate likes to only use Kane up front, and with Phil Foden and Mason Mount as the Eriksen-like creators.
As I feel Lampard will when he has everyone fit and at his disposal, Alli will play the number 10 role in a 4-2-3-1 or slightly on the left of a 4-3-3 formation.
Alli is great at being instinctive and has a real knack of scoring inside the six yard box. Learning from one of the best midfield scorers of all-time in Lampard will only help his development.
A few season ago I vividly remember Alli scoring through brilliant chest control and volleying goals via longer balls from the Spurs centre backs. One such goal was at Goodison against Everton in a 1-1 draw. Let’s hope he can do that numerous times at the same ground, but this time in the royal blue shirt too.
Alli can still develop and learn, but I think the key is playing him in a number 10 role or as an inside left forward. He has stagnated not only because he hasn’t been playing, but when he has he’s been in a more withdrawn midfield role, especially since Pochettino left.
Lampard has to keep Alli in his preferred position for Everton and I believe he will. Once he picks his confidence up, develops relationships with the other players and learns Lampard’s ways, Everton could have their best midfield player goals return since Tim Cahill wore the shirt.