Dele Alli at Everton

[Yiddo21]

So much vitriol for a player who has done so much for the club, it's pathetic to read sometimes.

Give it a rest, he's been made a multi-millionaire playing for this club. All the commercial interests he has wouldn't have come his way if he'd been playing for Crystal Palace. He had a couple of good years but has gone backwards since 2018, is no longer part of the first-team (quite rightly) and should be sold.

I don't actually have any vitriol towards him, just frustrated he's wasted his talent and i'm not a sentimentalist. Thanks for the memories Dele, now clear off.

 

[Yiddo21]

I wonder if the positional move forward prevented him from becoming the player he could be. Only his touch and invention were valued in the AM3. So he's become this peripheral, crafty, late arriving player. But perhaps if he'd been forced to take responsibility for dictating the play, as Mason did from his first match under Poch, and to use his athleticism, he'd be more of a presence outside his moments of magic.

There may be some truth in that. He's been told he's not a midfielder so hasn't developed his game to be able to play in a midfield 3. He's not good enough to be a number 10, too slow to play wide, too weak to play up front. He's like a player without an identity.

Or to quote Avon Barksdale, i see a man without a country.

 

[Athenspur]

No idea what's happening behind closed doors, but on the surface Mou's treatment of Dele is borderline criminal.
This time last year -right after Mourinho arrived- he was our best player on the pitch bar none.
Too much of an asset to write off, and too good of a player to just get rid of.
Mou is no fool though, and there's probably more to that than what the naked eye can see. Maybe he has a plan, as in Ndombele's case.

 

[al_pacino]

I wonder if the positional move forward prevented him from becoming the player he could be. Only his touch and invention were valued in the AM3. So he's become this peripheral, crafty, late arriving player. But perhaps if he'd been forced to take responsibility for dictating the play, as Mason did from his first match under Poch, and to use his athleticism, he'd be more of a presence outside of his best moments.

I think so. Whether he would ever have become that player we might never know but his game was allowed to drift and didn't really evolve. He was somehow allowed to develop into a luxury player (as much as scoring goals can be a problem) whose all-round game is almost not there and I don't think that had to be the case.

 

[Rout-Ledge]

No idea what's happening behind closed doors, but on the surface Mou's treatment of Dele is borderline criminal.
This time last year -right after Mourinho arrived- he was our best player on the pitch bar none.
Too much of an asset to write off, and too good of a player to just get rid of.
Mou is no fool though, and there's probably more to that than what the naked eye can see. Maybe he has a plan, as in Ndombele's case.

It’s not even remotely criminal. Jose doesn’t owe Dele playing time, particularly if he doesn’t think it’s best for the team. He has a system, and Dele doesn’t fit it. Shame, but move on. United’s mistake was hiring Jose and then getting precious about the decisions he made with certain players. You just have to let him get on with it. Otherwise there’s no point having him.

It would be hard to argue that we’ve been worse off for dropping Dele (and Winks for that matter - both started in our only two losses of the season by the way). Hopefully he gets a good move in January.

 

[Spursmatty87]

Love dele but you can’t really say Jose hasn’t given him a fair crack at it. Things could change but we can’t keep someone of his quality out the squad so he needs to move on for me.

 

[Joely]

Just feels like a case where although I don't doubt Mourinho believes in Dele's qualities (unlike Winks imo), to get into his team, he has essentially got to change the type of player he is. I think when Mourinho arrived, he might have been thinking with Dele still being relatively young, he could look to develop him into a more all round type of midfielder playing at the top of a midfield 3.

More running and getting on the end of things from deep rather than floating further forward while looking to move the ball quicker from midfield and doing the rest of the stuff that comes with playing in midfield.

Maybe after a year, realised that isn't going to happen either through him having seen Dele close up and not believing he has the skillset to play that role or because he doesn't have the appetite to change and is accustomed to being the type the looks to float further up the pitch. It's a shame because no doubt in the right team/setup, his ability will shine through but just don't see it happening in a Mourinho team.

 

[Yiddo21]

Just feels like a case where although I don't doubt Mourinho believes in Dele's qualities (unlike Winks imo), to get into his team, he has essentially got to change the type of player he is. I think when Mourinho arrived, he might have been thinking with Dele still being relatively young, he could look to develop him into a more all round type of midfielder playing at the top of a midfield 3.

More running and getting on the end of things from deep rather than floating further forward while looking to move the ball quicker from midfield and doing the rest of the stuff that comes with playing in midfield.

Maybe after a year, realised that isn't going to happen either through him having seen Dele close up and not believing he has the skillset to play that role or because he doesn't have the appetite to change and is accustomed to being the type the looks to float further up the pitch. It's a shame because no doubt in the right team/setup, his ability will shine through but just don't see it happening in a Mourinho team.

I think he initially thought this guy can be my Frank Lampard. A hard-working AM who can get me goals and assists while maintaining the shape and tactical discipline i want from my team. Unfortunately Dele hasn't been able to show him he could do that. So he fucked him off.

It's a cruel world but that's top level management. You have to be ruthless.

 

[synththfc]

No idea what's happening behind closed doors, but on the surface Mou's treatment of Dele is borderline criminal.
This time last year -right after Mourinho arrived- he was our best player on the pitch bar none.
Too much of an asset to write off, and too good of a player to just get rid of.
Mou is no fool though, and there's probably more to that than what the naked eye can see. Maybe he has a plan, as in Ndombele's case.

SC never fails to amaze me

 

[TommyGee]

No idea what's happening behind closed doors, but on the surface Mou's treatment of Dele is borderline criminal.
This time last year -right after Mourinho arrived- he was our best player on the pitch bar none.
Too much of an asset to write off, and too good of a player to just get rid of.
Mou is no fool though, and there's probably more to that than what the naked eye can see. Maybe he has a plan, as in Ndombele's case.

His skillset simply does not fit the team's new system, at least not as well as our other options. There's no conspiracy behind it.

It's a by-product from the shift where previously the system was built around getting the best out of our talented players, however now we are at a higher level where the players must work as a unit to make the most of the system. It's a much more consistent approach which has proven successful with other well managed clubs like Liverpool & City over the years, as it's proving to be for us under Mourinho.

 

[Fergus]

I wonder if the positional move forward prevented him from becoming the player he could be. Only his touch and invention were valued in the AM3. So he's become this peripheral, crafty, late arriving player. But perhaps if he'd been forced to take responsibility for dictating the play, as Mason did from his first match under Poch, and to use his athleticism, he'd be more of a presence outside of his best moments.

For his first couple of seasons, I thought he might be the second coming of Martin Peters (showing my age here). But Peters evolved as a player throughout his career, and was also willing (and able) to fill a variety of positions other than his favourite No 10 as squad needs required.

 

[Trees]

PSG loan in January. Pre cursor to Poch arriving in the Summer in Paris ?

 

['O Zio]

No idea what's happening behind closed doors, but on the surface Mou's treatment of Dele is borderline criminal.
This time last year -right after Mourinho arrived- he was our best player on the pitch bar none.
Too much of an asset to write off, and too good of a player to just get rid of.
Mou is no fool though, and there's probably more to that than what the naked eye can see. Maybe he has a plan, as in Ndombele's case.

Dele has been largely poor for years now and people were calling for him to be dropped long before Mourinho arrived. Then when Mourinho took over, one of his first observations was what a poor trainer Alli is. Despite that he was given by a chance to prove the doubters wrong but didn't take it. Now the team has moved on and we've developed a system that he doesn't fit into, and we're doing very well with it. Why should Mourinho adapt a winning system to fit a player in who has done nothing to justify it either in training or in games?

Dele has been dining out on his first two seasons with the club ever since and as a result he hasn't kicked on. If anything he's regressed I'm that time.

Ultimately he still clearly has quite a high ceiling so I think it would be a shame to sell him in a "what might've been" kind of way, but of you take emotion out of it, Alli doesn't fit into the new team and is probably surpluses to requirements. So how you think it's "criminal" not to play him has me a bit confused to be honest.

I don't wish Dele any ill will, he gave us a lot of good moments. But I think it's probably best for both parties for him to be moved on. We've moved on already and he's gone backwards. Maybe a fresh start will help him recover some of the magic that made him so good in his first couple of seasons with us?

 

[olliec]

No idea what's happening behind closed doors, but on the surface Mou's treatment of Dele is borderline criminal.
This time last year -right after Mourinho arrived- he was our best player on the pitch bar none.
Too much of an asset to write off, and too good of a player to just get rid of.
Mou is no fool though, and there's probably more to that than what the naked eye can see. Maybe he has a plan, as in Ndombele's case.

Mourinho already said the talent is there but he’s a lazy trainer and doesn’t put the same kind of shift in compared to other players. We all know Jose likes players that basically put 110% and dele just doesn’t seem motivated to do that.

 

[Spurvert]

Dele is not good enough for this team now. He was poor for the last year or so of Poch’s reign and still played week in, week out. He had a good few games when Jose came in, but since then he’s done little with the opportunities he’s been given. We are finally seeing players play on merit and I’m all for it.

And the talk of Jose’s treatment as borderline criminal? Jesus Christ. He’s not played well for a long time, doesn’t fit in our system and we have better options. There’s been no human rights violation. He will be off in January I’d imagine, probably a loan with view to buy. He had a few great seasons but the decline started before Jose got here.

 

[WiganSpur]

He needs to wait until the end of Jan at the very least. Especially if we get through in the cup against Stoke and Marine. The games are going to be piling up. The same applies to Winks.

 

[EastLondonYid]

Dele is not good enough for this team now. He was poor for the last year or so of Poch’s reign and still played week in, week out. He had a good few games when Jose came in, but since then he’s done little with the opportunities he’s been given. We are finally seeing players play on merit and I’m all for it.

And the talk of Jose’s treatment as borderline criminal? Jesus Christ. He’s not played well for a long time, doesn’t fit in our system and we have better options. There’s been no human rights violation. He will be off in January I’d imagine, probably a loan with view to buy. He had a few great seasons but the decline started before Jose got here.

Spot on

If we want to start being regarded as title contenders , than we should start thinking and acting like contenders.

Fergie used to move on players who were better than Dele and who had filled his trophy cabinet year after year if he felt their time was done.

For the first time in decades we have a man in charge who thinks like fergie and is a winner......

Dele was good for us, and we were good for him, but time for a change for the good of both parties.

 

[SamR]

I don't think anyone really likes to witness a fall from grace like we're seeing with Dele.

To be fair to him, he hasn't thrown his toys out of the pram and is head down and i respect that. I can't help but feel it's sadly time for him to move on, be it a loan so we can all hope he rediscovers the form that got us up off our seats when he burst onto the scene.

If we we're losing games we could bemoan Jose for leaving hin out, but we're winning and other players like Lo Celso are fighting their way back into the team.

The same could be said for Winks. Hard to not feel for the pair but we're fighting to win a league and cup and that requires a level of ruthlessness we've not become comfortable with yet.

 

[Locotoro]

Dele is a good talented player and one that works hard on the pitch. My preference is that he should be playing in the front line in rotation with Son/Berwijn/Lucas because thats where his skill sets works best.

For those saying his Spurs career is over should remember that Bale is with us on loan only for this season so far. There has been nothing, so far, which indicates that we should renew the loan for another year at the cost of 300k pw (approx 15m). Therefore instantly if Bale left that opens up a squad role in that front 3 (Kane, Vinicius, Son, Bergwijn, Lucas, Dele).

It would be naive to sell him at this moment

 

[Coyboy]

No idea what's happening behind closed doors, but on the surface Mou's treatment of Dele is borderline criminal.
This time last year -right after Mourinho arrived- he was our best player on the pitch bar none.
Too much of an asset to write off, and too good of a player to just get rid of.
Mou is no fool though, and there's probably more to that than what the naked eye can see. Maybe he has a plan, as in Ndombele's case.

What crime is he close to committing?