Dele Alli isn’t much of a mystery. That’s probably one of the most depressing factors in analysing the boy’s play. The ability is there, it’s just a question of him delivering it on a consistent basis. Most of the time when great players get on the ball, something exciting happens. With Dele, that probability has shrunk down to a ‘maybe’ or worse.
Whilst a side that one smashes 7 past may not be the most robust yardstick, it would be churlish not to acknowledge the improvement. IF Jose
DRIBBLING SKILLS
PASSING ACCURACY this was decent enough achievement. If we compare this with Dele’s 59 minutes against Shkendija in the UEFA Europa League, on 24.09.2020, he only a managed a successful passing accuracy of 69%.
TOTAL SUCCESSFUL ACTIONS these numbers are astonishing, not because they put the boy up there with Cristiano Ronaldo at his peak, it’s rather that these numbers are so better than anything he’s produced since we played Southampton in the FA Cup on 05.02.2020, where Dele hit 78% (which was also a hugely atypical achievement).
Total successful actions is a blunt metric, but that bluntness is great for a providing a no-nonsense snapshot of whether a player was particularly competent, or consistent. Scoring a mind-blowing bicycle kick that wins the game is great – but if most actions prior to that were unsuccessful – what on earth was the footballer playing at, was he on his phone?!
Only a few days left, but I’d prefer Dele went somewhere else to prove himself. We’ve always known that his talent was in there, but the interminable wait for him to demonstrate it has gone on too long.