Tottenham decline suggests it's time for a change for Dele Alli
"Too many players." That was Jose Moutinho's reasoning for leaving Dele Alli out of the 18-man squad for Tottenham's trip to Southampton on Sunday. It was the second game running that Alli hasn't made a Spurs squad having not even been on the bench for the Europa League win over Lokomotiv Plovdiv. After being hauled off at half time in the 1-0 loss to Everton on the opening weekend of the campaign, speculation has been rife over the 24-year-old's future in north London.
"I asked him if he was Dele or Dele's brother," Mourinho revealed after his appointment in November. A fresh chance under a new manager should have given Alli a lease of life at Spurs and, to his credit, he responded in kind. In the four games following the arrival of Mourinho, Alli scored three and provided three assists. Of the 12 league goals he had a direct hand in last season, half came in meetings with West Ham, Bournemouth, Manchester United and Burnley.
Following those four games, though, Alli reverted to his pre-Mourinho form. Injuries to key attacking personnel didn't aid the youngster, with the midfielder also required to lead the offensive in the absence of Harry Kane and, later, Son Heung-Min, but even so; there is no denying that Alli, while impressive in the opening matches of Mourinho's tenure, has dropped off both in playing time and performance levels.
Three of his four best rated performances under Mourinho in the Premier League came in the aforementioned games - Bournemouth (9.54) and Burnley (7.79) at home and West Ham (7.54) away. New manager bounce proved effective for both Spurs and Alli as the north London side won five of seven matches, losing only to Mourinho's former sides Manchester United and Chelsea in that run.
In those seven matches, Alli started in the number 10 role, his best position, in six, with the 2-0 home defeat to Chelsea the exception. In that loss, he started in central midfield and put in performance that warranted a WhoScored rating of 5.99, his third worst in a Spurs shirt under Mourinho. While no player covered themselves in glory that December evening, it was perhaps a damning indictment of what is to come for the player.
"I understood already that you are a f***ing lazy guy in training," Mourinho said of Alli in the All or Nothing documentary. The early performances perhaps masked his lack of effort on the training pitch and there is no denying that when Alli is on song, he is nigh-on unstoppable.
"I have no doubts about your potential. I saw you do incredible things in incredible matches. But I always felt that you had ups and downs. There is a huge difference between a player who has consistency and a player who has moments. That is what makes the difference between a top, top player and a player with top potential." It was a frank assessment from Mourinho on the midfielder, but seemed advice that Alli failed to take on board. Indeed, in the nine games following lockdown to see out the 2019/20 season, he started just once, that coming in a 2-0 home win over West Ham.
However, it was a match Alli failed to have a major impact in as his WhoScored rating (6.22) suggests. With the likes of Kane and Son back to full fitness, and Giovani Lo Celso starting to establish himself as a first team regular under Mourinho, Alli has become less and less important and more a passenger in the games he did start. Granted, this can be attributed to Alli being deployed up front, but it seemed the "lazy" attitude Mourinho spoke of in training began to translate into matches.
There's also the fact Mourinho has sought to move to a 4-3-3 formation to accomodate new signing Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Harry Winks and Lo Celso. With Tanguy Ndombele, Moussa Sissoko and Gedson Fernandes also better fits in a central midfield three, Alli has effectively been forced out of a midfield role. The return of Gareth Bale swells Mourinho's attacking options, which further reinforces Mourinho's "too many players" quip over the weekend.
The perceived lack of work off the ball won't have sat well with Mourinho either. Since his November appointment, Alli has won possession in the midfield third 43 times, the seventh best of all Spurs payers in the Premier League in that time; not a bad return. However, it's lower than Winks (68) and Lo Celso (59), while Hojbjerg has done so nine times in his opening two league appearances with the club. At this rate, the Dane will surpass Alli's total in 21 appearances in the next eight outings.
While previously, Alli wouldn't have to worry himself about his work off the ball, with Mourinho tinkering his system to fit a hard working midfield, the England international needs to be willing to put in the hard graft or Spurs run the risk of the defence being left too exposed. You only have to look at Hugo Lloris' reaction to Son not tracking his runner towards the end of the first half of Spurs' 1-0 win over Everton last season to see how important it is that every player carries out their defensive responsibilites.
Yet even in the final third, supporters have bore witness to Alli become more ineffective. A key pass every 80.6 minutes in 2019/20 was his lowest in a Premier League season, while a successful pass every 8.4 minutes was also his worst return in a campaign. Compared to his stunning debut seasons in England's top tier, and fans are becoming increasingly frustrated at the lack of output from Alli. While the goals and assists return was never going to be sustainable, the midfielder is now leaning more towards the "luxury player" category.
The fact is, Alli now gives the impression of a player who needs to play in a particular system to bring out his best qualities. Mauricio Pochettino did so impressively between 2015 and 2017 in a frontline alongside Kane, Son and Christian Eriksen. Mourinho attempted similar in a 4-2-3-1 with Alli in the hole behind Kane after coming in at Spurs, and while the early signs were promosing, there's now a system in place that doesn't play to his best qualities.
In 2019/20, Alli returned a WhoScored rating of 6.87, his lowest in a Premier League season, and it seems a change in scenary would be best for all parties and he still has his suitors on the continent, with PSG confident of securing his services in the window. Mourinho had confirmed that Alli would be involved against Leyton Orient on Tuesday night, only for that game to be called off after a number of Orient players tested positive for Coronavirus.
Next up for Spurs is a Europa League trip to Macedonian side KF Shkendija and it's a game Alli will hope to feature in. However, if he fails to register a single minute of action for the third successive Spurs encounter then it's a pretty clear indication that Mourinho no longer needs Alli in what would suggest a further fall from grace for the midfielder.
