‘Didn’t see that’: Andros Townsend defends Tottenham ace after Mourinho criticism

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Andros Townsend has defended Dele Alli and stated that he was ‘never a bad trainer’ during his time at Tottenham after Jose Mourinho’s criticism of the player emerged.

In Tottenham’s new Amazon documentary – All or Northing – Mourinho labelled Alli as ‘lazy’ during his early impressions of the player and questioned how he trained, but Towsend stated on talkSPORT that he ‘didn’t see that’ laziness from the player when he was at the club.

During the latter stages of Mauricio Pochettino’s reign, Alli’s form dipped and it needed picking up when Mourinho was appointed – the goals began to pick up for the Englishman when the former Premier League winner first arrived.

Townsend touched upon how Alli’s lack of form when Mourinho first joined was perhaps down to his seemingly lack of effort in training, as he shared his thoughts on the player.

“He was never a bad trainer when I was there,” Townsend told talkSPORT. “I think back to when Mourinho joined and Dele Alli was going through a bad spell. He wasn’t playing particularly well.

“He was out of favour with Pochettino, so maybe he just lost that enthusiasm and love of the game, a little bit and that spilt over into the start of the Jose Mourinho spell.

“I definitely didn’t see that during my spell with Dele.”

There’s no doubt that during Mourinho’s early reign, Alli’s form picked up, he started scoring goals and he was looking like his old self again.

Now it’s a case of the attack-minded midfielder transforming that into a Premier League season again and trying to get back into the England squad ahead of the delayed European Championships next summer.

In truth, Alli has set the bar high for himself because of how he burst onto the scene in North London when he was first snapped up by the club five years ago.

The former MK Dons player perhaps needs a Mourinho-like figure to give him a metaphorical kick up the backside, so he can now take his game to the next level once again.