Danny Murphy leaps to Dele Alli’s defence; blames loss of form on two Tottenham Hotspur players

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Alli has failed to score in his last five Tottenham Hotspur appearances.

Danny Murphy has leapt to the defence of Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Dele Alli.

Alli has failed to score in five games since his match-winning double against Real Madrid at the start of November – a run which has yielded a solitary victory and none in the Premier League.

As a result, the 21-year-old has seen his performances widely criticised in recent weeks, despite having contributed three assists in that time.

But speaking to Talksport on Monday lunchtime, Murphy insisted that Alli “has not lost his touch” and “should not be dropped”.

“I don’t think [Alli’s loss of form is] rocket science when you look at a couple of issues,” said the former Tottenham midfielder. “If you look at their team last season, the starting lineup was mostly the same. Now this year, [Victor] Wanyama and [Mousa] Dembele have hardly played together. Those two as a pairing were as good as it got last year in central midfield, in protecting and also freeing up Dele Alli.

“If you’re playing in front of Wanyaama and Dembele every week, you’ve got no worries behind you. Those two are missing, the two right-backs they’ve got [Kieran Trippier and Serge Aurier] aren’t as good as [Manchester City’s ex-Tottenham right-back Kyle] Walker, [Danny] Rose has hardly played all season and now [Toby] Alderweireld’s out.”

Tottenham were billed as potential title challengers as recently as one month ago, but find themselves trailing league leaders Manchester City by 18 points in sixth position.

As for Spurs’ collective dip, Murphy added: “Only for less than half of [the past] two seasons did they play three at the back. Tottenham for me are better when they play four.

“[Spurs’] best 11 would give anyone a game.”

Alli has scored or assisted 67 goals in 114 Tottenham appearances since his 2015 transfer from Milton Keynes Dons, with 11 of those contributions arriving already this season.

Dembele completed his first 90 minutes since mid-September against Watford on Saturday, although Wanyama is not expected to return until the new year.