Dele Alli

[DubaiSpur]

Come on! Completely different situations... Today's team would have beaten Palace

True. But the point is, don't assume that things will be different next week because Arsenal are a worse team than Chelsea - we are capable of shipping 3 or more to anyone, or so it seems right now.

Nuno needs a result against the Goons to stave off a turning tide of opinion, imo - much like Poch needing Kane's last-minute deflected free-kick vs Villa to save his job in the first few months of his time with us.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

He was our best player today I thought. One of the few who could hold his head high.

Wow

 

[Bedfordspurs]

James Milner was a very good football player, we should’ve bought him on two or three occasions when he was available.

We did try
He turned us down as he didn’t wanna move south

 

[Bedfordspurs]

And he wasn't alone, but for 45 minutes we were the better team.
Strange game.

We were
But we didn’t really test the keeper
It was very workmanlike

 

[mjc23]

It feels unfair to criticise him as his effort is spot on at the moment but his inability to be able to pass a ball is shocking for a pretty talented professional footballer
His flicks and timing of runs are decent but he can't make a side foot pass.

 

[Badger]

It feels unfair to criticise him as his effort is spot on at the moment but his inability to be able to pass a ball is shocking for a pretty talented professional footballer
His flicks and timing of runs are decent but he can't make a side foot pass.

Reminds me of similar comments made of a certain Frenchman who moved to a promoted London club this season....

 

[Jurgen the German]

James Milner was a very good football player, we should’ve bought him on two or three occasions when he was available.

Milner is a good, honest pro but he gave his teams virtually nothing going forward. Which is the same as what Alli is giving us now. Maybe we should manager our own expectations with Alli, if we want a player who is going to give us nothing in terms of attacking output but someone who always puts a shift then that’s fine. He’s a shadow of the player he was four years ago and we can’t even blame Jose anymore. He’s also one of the slowest players in the league. He got done for pace in the first half by Mount who isn’t that quick either.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Milner is a good, honest pro but he gave his teams virtually nothing going forward. Which is the same as what Alli is giving us now. Maybe we should manager our own expectations with Alli, if we want a player who is going to give us nothing in terms of attacking output but someone who always puts a shift then that’s fine. He’s a shadow of the player he was four years ago and we can’t even blame Jose anymore. He’s also one of the slowest players in the league. He got done for pace in the first half by Mount who isn’t that quick either.

He is without a role
He also got done for pace twice by Mason Mount… that’s not good IMO

 

[Jordinho]

Only times I noticed him was when he was filling in at LB.

 

[billyiddo]

He was our best player today I thought. One of the few who could hold his head high.

Yep, dunno what game others are watching

 

[Bedfordspurs]

I thought I’d look for player stats from the game

this came up https://www.squawka.com/en/spurs-0-3-chelsea-player-ratings-thiago-silva-rudiger-kante-kane/

 

[afsoc4life]

I thought I’d look for playerView attachment 12752 stats from the game

this came up https://www.squawka.com/en/spurs-0-3-chelsea-player-ratings-thiago-silva-rudiger-kante-kane/

Can't argue with that.

 

[Spoonman]

He was our best player today I thought. One of the few who could hold his head high.

Yep, dunno what game others are watching

The guy was atrocious and has been for far too long now. He has no pace, his passes are always under hit, his shooting is weak and he can't run with the ball anymore.

If Winks was putting in performances like him he would be ripped to shreds by everyone.

Nuno likes him though because he runs around lot now so I think we're stuck with him.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

The guy was atrocious and has been for far too long now. He has no pace, his passes are always under hit, his shooting is weak and he can't run with the ball anymore.

If Winks was putting in performances like him he would be ripped to shreds by everyone.

Nuno likes him though because he runs around lot now so I think we're stuck with him.

He didn’t run at all yesterday

 

[braineclipse]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1439626550383726601

https://twitter.com/x/status/1439637568950312962

Not looking to have a go at you personally Steve, but this use of stats bugs me.

Here's a narrative, let's go looking for any stats that we can shoehorn in to support that narrative.

-Surely there's a massive overlap between "chances created" and "key passes". Usually one is reported, because one makes sense. Why both? To get another 0 in the list perhaps?

- 0 crosses? Yeah. Is getting Alli into crossing positions a real part of our attacking plan? Are his number of crosses at all a reflection of how he plays when he plays well? Nope, no. But it's another 0 for the list, so chuck it in.

- 0 long passes. Now, admittedly, Alli tried a couple of speculative long passes in the second half, would have been good if those had been better. Are long passes a part of his game? No. Are we looking for that when he plays well? No. But it's a 0, add it to the list.

-Whoscored has him with 2 tackles, again, admittedly, that's sometimes a misleading stat, but why wasn't it included? I can guarantee it would have been had it been 0.

-Whoscored also has him making 3 clearances. Again, same point as above.

He didn't play particularly well, but he did alright. Can't see why he's being singled out.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Not looking to have a go at you personally Steve, but this use of stats bugs me.

Here's a narrative, let's go looking for any stats that we can shoehorn in to support that narrative.

-Surely there's a massive overlap between "chances created" and "key passes". Usually one is reported, because one makes sense. Why both? To get another 0 in the list perhaps?

- 0 crosses? Yeah. Is getting Alli into crossing positions a real part of our attacking plan? Are his number of crosses at all a reflection of how he plays when he plays well? Nope, no. But it's another 0 for the list, so chuck it in.

- 0 long passes. Now, admittedly, Alli tried a couple of speculative long passes in the second half, would have been good if those had been better. Are long passes a part of his game? No. Are we looking for that when he plays well? No. But it's a 0, add it to the list.

-Whoscored has him with 2 tackles, again, admittedly, that's sometimes a misleading stat, but why wasn't it included? I can guarantee it would have been had it been 0.

-Whoscored also has him making 3 clearances. Again, same point as above.

He didn't play particularly well, but he did alright. Can't see why he's being singled out.

For me, him and gio were awful
They were laboured and just not quick to anything
It was toss up as to who was worse
With dele when I saw mount run past him
Easily I was shocked. Dele isn’t slow but he couldn’t keep up. In the end dele made a block as reggie came in and stopped Mason. He checked back and hit the ball at dele abs it went out of play
For me yesterday he felt like that square peg. He didn’t hide but he didn’t move much either. That’s so unlike what we have seen of him this season

 

[braineclipse]

For me, him and gio were awful
They were laboured and just not quick to anything
It was toss up as to who was worse
With dele when I saw mount run past him
Easily I was shocked. Dele isn’t slow but he couldn’t keep up. In the end dele made a block as reggie came in and stopped Mason. He checked back and hit the ball at dele abs it went out of play
For me yesterday he felt like that square peg. He didn’t hide but he didn’t move much either. That’s so unlike what we have seen of him this season

Depends what one means by awful I guess.

Alli for me put a shift in defensively, though perhaps there were situations where he was not as good ss before. Being tasked with marking Silva, or in the area Silva and Chelsea would attack is a big ask. Could have done better, but yeah.

He could have done better on the ball, but he never hid, he tried to find solutions. Didn't work out, but that happens against teams this good. To me that's not awful, but we use words differently.

For me the key with Alli in this role remains the same.

1. Can we find enough creativity and quality in our buildup play from the other players. Because we know that's not his strength, and we know him getting better at that will take time (if it happens to any significant degree)?

2. Can he get forward enough to use his standout qualities in the final third to good effect often enough. And to that, can the rest of the team do enough to get him the ball in those areas often enough.

For me the answer to point one is very much up in the air. I think there's a lot of potential for this team to improve in that area, in part because our buildup play is patently poor quite often and we have players capable of doing better both regular starters so far and Ndombele, Lo Celso.

For the second point I think he has shown that he can, in most games at least. Rest of the team, same as point one. Let's see.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Depends what one means by awful I guess.

Alli for me put a shift in defensively, though perhaps there were situations where he was not as good ss before. Being tasked with marking Silva, or in the area Silva and Chelsea would attack is a big ask. Could have done better, but yeah.

He could have done better on the ball, but he never hid, he tried to find solutions. Didn't work out, but that happens against teams this good. To me that's not awful, but we use words differently.

For me the key with Alli in this role remains the same.

1. Can we find enough creativity and quality in our buildup play from the other players. Because we know that's not his strength, and we know him getting better at that will take time (if it happens to any significant degree)?

2. Can he get forward enough to use his standout qualities in the final third to good effect often enough. And to that, can the rest of the team do enough to get him the ball in those areas often enough.

For me the answer to point one is very much up in the air. I think there's a lot of potential for this team to improve in that area, in part because our buildup play is patently poor quite often and we have players capable of doing better both regular starters so far and Ndombele, Lo Celso.

For the second point I think he has shown that he can, in most games at least. Rest of the team, same as point one. Let's see.

He did have a really good run around 75 mins and get caught late by a hard tackle
Chelsea play a low block and dig in with such control but he did well then.
An issue I have with where he was playing yesterday was he can only go inwards. He has no left foot and his passing isn’t his strong point. Playing a wide left role in midfield means he can only go one way

I agree with the corner. Not sure why he was him although he is good in the air. Thiago timed his run really well and made the goal. Dele didn’t do enough but I’m not sure what he could do from a standing start

 

[tynesidespur]

I think we'd have gotten a lot more out of Dele yesterday if he and Lo Celso had switched places.
Lo Celso doesn't assist or score goals so I find it mind boggling that he's playing as part of a front 3. Dele does when he's high up. The front 3 were there to press the centre-backs he doesn't need pace to do that.

I think we've wasted £90m on Ndombele and Lo Celso. We're into season 3 and it still hasn't worked out - even in the very few games they've played together from the start the balance still isn't right.
Would love to be proven wrong but I just can't see it.
While we have much to blame Levy for, fair play he stumped up the cash for those 2 and it hasn't worked.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

I think we'd have gotten a lot more out of Dele yesterday if he and Lo Celso had switched places.
Lo Celso doesn't assist or score goals so I find it mind boggling that he's playing as part of a front 3. Dele does when he's high up. The front 3 were there to press the centre-backs he doesn't need pace to do that.

I think we've wasted £90m on Ndombele and Lo Celso. We're into season 3 and it still hasn't worked out - even in the very few games they've played together from the start the balance still isn't right.
Would love to be proven wrong but I just can't see it.
While we have much to blame Levy for, fair play he stumped up the cash for those 2 and it hasn't worked.

I agree with them switching
Lo Celso plays that creative role for Argentina and did it before he joined
I don’t get dele hugging the byline on the left with no left foot (he isn’t a winger) or Lo Celso on the right, with no right foot.
It just didn’t seem either was gonna affect the game that way
What I think we need to do is try Lo Celso in that 10 role with 3 in front or alongside him (Kane, son and one other)
That way we can still have 2 CMs behind and also let the full backs push up more