Dele Alli will be keen to rewrite the story of his career this season as the last one was arguably his worst in his senior career.
Jose Mourinho quickly made him a scapegoat last season and took him out of his first-team plans for the campaign.
The midfielder got chances to play in Cup matches, but it was obvious that he didn’t have the trust of Mourinho.
He got some minutes back when the Portuguese boss was fired and replaced with Ryan Mason and has enjoyed a new lease of life under the management of Nuno Espirito Santo.
The former Wolves boss has given him a new freedom in midfield and the England international has been enjoying it.
Alli won and scored the penalty in Tottenham’s 1-0 win over Wolves at the weekend and his overall performance in their two league games so far against Manchester City and Wolves has been enjoyable.
The Daily Mail believes he is now on his way to re-establishing himself and will do well in his new role under Nuno Santo.
They write: “No longer deployed as the midfielder directly behind Harry Kane, Dele Alli has been handed a new lease of life by Nuno Espirito Santo in a deeper role.
“The Spurs boss sees Alli as an all-action midfielder tasked with winning the ball deep in his own territory and helping dominate possession when his side are further forward.
“The 25-year-old showed glimpses of what that role could bring. He won and coolly converted the winning penalty with a trademark dash into the box for his first top-flight goal since March last year.
“But it was his defensive shift – which included throwing himself at a Raul Jimenez effort – which would have pleased his manager the most.
“Alli has had far too many peaks and troughs in his career to know the hard work is only just beginning, but there are positive signs he could create a role for himself again at Spurs.”
All nuno has to do is put the nutter back into him. The “nutter that poch took out
he can’t do any worse. Dele. Silence me
Skipp adding extra protection to the Chuckle Brothers
but we are paying for it in lack of firepower (1 goal from open play + 1 pen)
Dier and Sanchez look so much better when they aren’t under pressure and defending for 90mins. Not great but better. We did soak up pressure against wolves and city but I didn’t get the usual sinking feeling of the certain goal we always concede when we play like that.
Dele. Well if you play to his strengths, which we moved on from in the last 3 years, he’s going to score and create, if you allow some stray passes that go hand in hand with trying to do something, but you need players like hoijberg to mop up when it happens.
If you take risks in the final 3rd sometimes you’ll be rewarded. If you don’t take risks, you’ll need to get extra lucky.
So far, 2 league matches in, have to credit NES for getting far better performances not only from Dele but Dier & Sanchez as well.
Know some still can’t/won’t credit them but they’re all playing with commitment & fight for the THFC cause & long may it continue.
I really don’t see him as a deep lying midfielder as a long term solution. He is not a good tackler and his ball retention is suspect. I always thought his strength was to arrive late in the box and he has an eye for goal which will now be negated by playing deeper. Judging by Sunday’s performance which I was able to watch, we played like we did under Mourinho and we still have not altered the personnel nearly enough. Dier, Winks, Aurier and Sissoko are still with us which is not encouraging for the season.
I think I’m going to struggle to put my faith back in Dele, Dier and one or two others, and from what I’ve witnessed so far from them, not a lot has changed.
However the one noticeable difference to see is how the players appear more confident in themselves and more together post Mourinho, but it is early days.
If Dele cuts out the schoolboy fancy stuff, that invariably failed, that will be progress over the dross he has served up in recent years. I hope he has learned that he stayed still whilst others progressed. I doubt he will get near the England set up again. there are just too many ahead of him.
Does anyone else think 9.5M for Shaquiri by Lyon was good business?He could have done a job for us for a couple of years and would have given us a free kick specialist.Another opportunity lost I think.