Alan Hutton told Sky Sports News (23/12/20 at 7:25 pm) that Gareth Bale ‘didn’t do much’ during Tottenham’s 3-1 win at Stoke, but he was impressed by Dele Alli’s showing.
Spurs booked their place in the semi-finals of the League Cup after knocking out the Championship outfit, with Gareth Bale opening the scoring with a glancing header before going off at half-time.
Dele was substituted, to his annoyance, in the second half, with his attempted flick in the middle of the park resulting in the home team equalising before Tottenham finished off the job.
Nonetheless, former Spurs right-back Hutton offered differing views to Alli and Bale’s performances from yesterday.
“I’m presuming he got a little bit of a knock,” said Hutton. “It was a great finish and a lovely ball in from Winks into the penalty area. It was a great glancing header.
“But he didn’t do much after that. He didn’t really get going. He doesn’t really look up to speed if I am totally honest.
On Alli’s performance: “I liked what I seen. He came on and played that number 10 role. He got into pockets of space, he turned to try and make things happen. It was obviously difficult playing against two banks of a five and a four. But I think he can be happy with his night’s work.”
It seems as though Dele is in the same boat of trying to prove his worth to Jose Mourinho because trying clever flicks won’t exactly do that.
As for Bale, he will be left frustrated at the fact that he went off injured because slowly but surely the club were building him up.
It remains to be seen whether the Welshman was clever in going off at the right time, and as a result, saving himself from suffering a bigger problem.
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