Dele Alli has endured a mixed season in the Premier League for Tottenham Hotspur so far.
After the two full seasons that Dele Alli has enjoyed in the Premier League so far, it is no surprise that he is struggling to live up to the standards he has previously set.
Last season, Alli scored 18 goals and provided seven assists in the top flight. A striker would be over the moon with that return, so for a player in his position and of his age, it was truly a stunning effort.
This season, his record is certainly not embarrassing by any means with a handful of goals and assists – but like a number of Mauricio Pochettino’s squad, it appears that his form this term has been a lot more underwhelming.
It was always possible that Alli was going to go off the boil at some stage, and Pochettino would have undoubtedly been hoping that it came at a time when the rest of his side were at the top of their game so it would not hurt the team too much.
Unfortunately, domestically at least, Tottenham have been much less impressive and surely find themselves out of the title race for another year – so perhaps the rest of the campaign is about building up as much momentum as possible ready for the new campaign.
They can build that momentum up in a number of ways. Of course, winning the Champions League, or even the FA Cup would be a tremendous statement, but winning as many games as possible and proving to be the best of the rest behind Manchester City would also be beneficial as it would give them a much greater chance of doing some good business in the transfer market.
But if Tottenham are to make the best of their current situation, they need their underperforming top stars to step up in 2018 – and perhaps no key player needs to step up quite as much as Alli does right now.
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