Tottenham’s Alli Should Be Used Sparingly Moving Forward
A potential lay-off for Dele Alli could do wonders for his current injuries despite hampering Tottenham’s title hopes in two competitions.
Throughout this season Dele Alli has had one of the best campaigns for a young teenager with no prior experience playing in the Premier League. In a way, the 19-year-old has perhaps bucked the trend that players don’t “need” to play in the Premiership before getting a chance to show that they can hang with the big boys.
Or, maybe it helps to have a manager like Mauricio Pochettino who is willing to let youth players play regardless of their age. So long as they prove it on the training ground.
In any event, Dele Alli has produced many fine moments this season but it may have come at a cost. Namely, starting too many games and getting little rest. Because of this it’s very likely he’ll be called up to Roy Hodgson’s England squad for the European Championship this summer. Thus giving him even less time to recover in time for the 2016-17 season.
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To date, in all competitions this term, Tottenham have played 42 games. Only one player has managed to play in almost all of those games. And that’s Eric Dier who has made 41 appearances. So where does Dele Alli rank?
Taking a look at Tottenham’s squad profile on Transfermarkt, it shows who has been on the 18-man matchday squad this season in one category and who has made an appearance in the second category.
Top Five Appearances this season (all competitions):
- Eric Dier – 41 (times on the 18-man matchday squad)/41 (appearances)
- Harry Kane – 41/40
- Dele Alli – 41/39
- Toby Alderweireld – 40/37
- Christian Eriksen – 37/37
Alli has missed three games. Twice he was an unused substitute, but the first one happened in the second game of the season against Stoke City in a 2-2 draw. At the time know one knew much about him so it’s a pass. Against Colchester United in the fourth round of the FA Cup he wasn’t needed. And finally, against Chelsea in a 0-0 draw he was suspended for yellow card accumulation.
Essentially, Dele Alli hasn’t missed much time at all since exploding onto the scene and being one of Tottenham’s best players this season. But moving forward, in Spurs’ next three games, his minutes could be monitored to reduce his playing time in a bid to keep him fresh for the remainder of the season.
For starters, Alli might not start the first leg against Dortmund (he could be subbed in however). For Villa, he shouldn’t be needed with how the Lions have looked all season. The second leg against BVB, this is when Dele Alli should start and go almost 90 minutes in a crucial game to advance into the quarter-finals.
Another thing to watch out for besides the amount of appearances and minutes that have piled up for a 19-year-old kid — he’s still very young despite all of his wonderful talents — is that he has gotten some wear and tear already. As in ankle and knee injuries.
Something that Mauricio Pochettino acknowledged when speaking to Sky Sports.
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“He is an incredible athlete, yes, but he is not a machine,” Pochettino said, “He has a problem in his ankle and knee. He was good before the [Arsenal] game but the players are not machines. It depends. We assess the players every day and we take the best decision from the team.”
“We try to look after all of them. We played a lot of games and we come from a difficult season, because we’ve played a lot. I think that we have good staff, good sports science and medical [staff], who can look after the players in a good way.
“We have a lot of players who are young and in their first or second season in the Premier League. It’s very tough and we spend a lot of time analyzing and finding information to give the best training sessions or recovery, or to find the best way to help them.”
“I don’t know about him lacking energy [against Arsenal],” Mauricio Pochettino added. “The second goal he looked fresh. Maybe we expect from him to run more than 14 kilometers (8.7 miles) in every game. I think today he was one of the best players, he showed energy and character.”
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Whatever Mauricio Pochettino decides to do with Dele Alli’s playing time moving forward, it’s obvious that he has managed the fifth most appearances this season. Again, the kid has talent and he has played in so many games because of said talent.
But the worry is that now he’s picking up minor knocks here and there — even if everyone does this late in the season. But when added on top of fatigue, a lack of rest and too many minutes played, then it could potentially hurt Alli in terms of his performance and Tottenham’s title run in two competitions.
Therefore it’s best to proceed with caution and rotate the 19-year-old more frequently for the rest of the season and get him ready for the following campaign.