Kieron Dyer suggested on BBC Radio 5 Live (01/11/20 at 1:30 pm) that Dele Alli has been unfairly treated by Jose Mourinho because he thinks the Tottenham midfielder needs to produce an ‘unbelievable’ first-half performance, else he is getting ‘dragged off at half-time’.
Former Spurs man Waddle responded by saying that Alli should be going on that pitch with a different mindset and telling himself ‘I am going to show’ his manager what he’s capable of producing.
Alli was one of four players dragged off at half-time during Tottenham’s Europa League defeat to Royal Antwerp last Thursday – he was then left out of the squad altogether for the win against Brighton.
Former Newcastle man Dyer and Spurs legend Waddle debated the situation surrounding Alli, as the former hinted that too much is potentially being asked of him.
“If you are Dele Alli and you know you’re going into a game, where if you don’t play unbelievable then I am being dragged off at half-time,” said Dyer.
“How is your mindset as a player knowing and going into the game where you are already on edge thinking ‘if I don’t play well then I am getting dragged’?
Waddle responded: “Would you not go out on the park and say ‘I am going to show him? I am not getting hooked. No chance today. I am going to show him what I can do’.
“Now, as he said, he could have taken 11 off [against Antwerp]. I think there is a problem there. I just don’t think he [Mourinho] likes the way he [Alli] is, the way he trains or plays. There is something not right there. That will come out, that’s for sure.”
The baby-faced teenager that broke on the Tottenham scene five years ago is looking like the shadow of himself today.
Alli had this knack of being this second striker from midfield, as his late movement and high-quality technical ability allowed him to score all types of goals.
But way before Mourinho walked through the doors of Tottenham, Alii’s form was heading towards the wrong direction, and even though he showed some promise early on during Mourinho’s reign, he has now well and truly fallen out of the first-team picture.
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