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Dele Alli

Mourinho summed it up quite well. He encapsulates what @StephenH was alluding to - that Dele had no intention to be racist - but also covers that he did make a mistake:

“Dele is a great guy” - courtesy of PA Sport, some quotes from Tottenham manager José Mourinho regarding the recent furore over Dele Alli’s Snapchat posts, in which he appeared to joke about the coronavirus outbreak and mock and Asian man:

Mourinho said: “I spoke with him about that but it was quite an easy conversation because he was very sorry about - let’s say, the mistake - but it was never his intention to hurt or offend.

“He immediately regretted and recognised it was a young generation mistake and he apologised. So my conversation was easy. What can I say, I can say he regrets and that is the best feeling he can show.

“I have a son at the same age as Dele and many of the players. I know social media is for his generation but when you are a public person like footballers are, they have to know and they have to be very, very careful.

“Dele is a great guy. The last thing he is is anything connected with racism.”
 
Think he was mainly making a joke based on current affairs, don’t think he’s racist but racism is often decided by the minority group and there’s nothing wrong with that.
 
It's just a shame what happened with Dele during his week off... The airport nonsense and that he got mugged off for his watch in Dubai...

How good would it have been, that we heard Dele had jetted off to Milan for a few days to take in the Milan derby and catch up with Christian Eriksen... He could've gone along with Jan. Okay perhaps not Jan but let's say Eric and expanded his football knowledge rather than, poolside banter with the lads...

Be a student of the game Dele , be a student ..
 
Anything the PL can do to derail our 4th place challenge

It'll just be even treatment with what Bernardo Silva got for his racist tweet. I find it hard to argue with that, whatever the motives, it was ill judged and Dele should know better.
 
Cheers! Funny but for some reason I'd kinda written that one off already. Maybe to do with how Cheatski managed to get their transfer ban lifted ...
Yeah I’m certainly not banking on it. As someone else alluded to knowing our luck we’ll make 4th and Chelski will get CL for the second time without actually finishing above us to make top 4!
 
Thankfully got away with his brother’s profligacy in front of goal today... Hopefully the real Dele will be over coronavirus in time for Leipzig!

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I see it quite differently. Perhaps in his first season I would agree with you, but I think he's made significant steps since then.

What we get almost every game in my opinion is a lot of hard and smart work defensively. Further he's always trying to make things happen, making runs, wanting the ball, trying creative stuff.

I think it's in the nature of a player like him that the stuff he tries won't always work out. He's trying flicks, passes, skill moves that are inherently high risk and high reward. When it works it looks sublime and carves teams open, when it doesn't work or may look wasteful and be annoying as the easy option is often available.

He's not a traditional playmaker or #10. He doesn't have the ball striking technique of players like De Bruyne or Eriksen to score from range or deliver crosses. Similarly to the vast majority of players in that position though how he's seen in any given match depends on the outcome in a relatively small number of key situations. And with that comes variance.

If he's capable of delivering that end product with even more consistency that would be great for him and us, I'm sure he's trying. But that's an almost impossible task. In perfectly happy to see him try and not always succeed, because he's always a threat, occupies defenders and creates space every game and his end product is already very good.

Hmm, still think he can be a luxury player when off form. His overall play hasn’t improved that much IMO. His passing is marginally better but his decision making and overall influence on the game hasn’t kicked on. Admittedly he has been better this season after being hit and miss for 18 months.
 
I thought that he was ok, on another day he gets a couple of goals. He's started every league game for Mourinho, so he must be doing something right.

Absolutely.
It is amazing to me that he has become such a talisman for judgement by others. I laugh when I read people wanting him to "stop" with the "flicks and tricks"...it is beyond my comprehension that some people want to see rare insouciant cheek and skill swapped out for Noble-esque drudge and battle "qualities". Thankfully, such a dire command is literally beyond Dele's comprehension.
 
Absolutely.
It is amazing to me that he has become such a talisman for judgement by others. I laugh when I read people wanting him to "stop" with the "flicks and tricks"...it is beyond my comprehension that some people want to see rare insouciant cheek and skill swapped out for Noble-esque drudge and battle "qualities". Thankfully, such a dire command is literally beyond Dele's comprehension.

You're right, and I've been guilty of asking for the same thing myself sometimes.

The thing is, thinking about it, if we were rock solid at the back, his little stepovers and nutmegs wouldn't matter one bit, because even if we turn it over, we'd eventually get it back, no harm done. But it's because we're so jarringly unstable at the back that every giveaway of possession leads to us collectively holding our breath, waiting for it to fly in past Lloris. And stepovers and nutmegs are the most visible giveaways, even if they're the same as giving it away in any other fashion.

Dele's game has not changed in five years. He's the same amazingly insouciant, cheeky footballer he's always been. But our circumstances have changed to the extent that what was brilliance under Poch during our hey-days, is now seen as a liability in our struggles under late Poch and now Mourinho.

Ironically, if Dele were a Mark Noble, just thumping the ball out of play or straight to the opposition center-back, we'd worry less about him, even if it's the exact same result (ball given away in their half), and exact same potential outcome (goal conceded) from a turnover. As has happened with Spam countless times - only they don't see it because Noble has pashun and shouts a lot while he gives the ball away and Spam concede a goal.

At least Dele tracks back when he loses the ball - he does a brick-ton of off the ball work that we don't recognize at times.
 
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