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Tottenham’s Harry Kane: Dele Alli Provides Chances

By Alexander Balano

LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 22: Harry Kane (R) of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates scoring his teams third goal with Dele Alli of Tottenham Hotspur during the Barclays Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United at White Hart Lane on November 22, 2015 in London, England. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 22: Harry Kane (R) of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates scoring his teams third goal with Dele Alli of Tottenham Hotspur during the Barclays Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United at White Hart Lane on November 22, 2015 in London, England. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images) /
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Christian Eriksen is normally Tottenham Hotspur’s number 10 playing behind Harry Kane, but since Dele Alli’s arrival, the 22-year-old striker believes he can get more chances when Alli is starting below him instead of Eriksen.

Dele Alli’s natural position is at central midfield. It was where he played the most with MK Dons last season. As the “quarterback” of the pitch, the 20-year-old’s role is to help orchestrate his team’s offense. Due to his natural abilities, Alli can be trusted to dribble up field and pick out teammates on the wings or in the middle. But when Tottenham suffered a couple of injuries to key players early in the 2015-16 season, Mauricio Pochettino decided to make some changes.

Related Story: Tottenham End of Season Review: Harry Kane

One major change was to bring Dele Alli in as a starter after Ryan Mason suffered a knee injury after scoring the game-winning goal against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. Previously, Alli was coming into games as a substitute to get slowly integrated into the first team.

It was a like-for-like move in terms of positions only. Ability wise, it was already evident early on that Alli was better than Mason. However, the central midfield role — while it should have been Alli’s calling card — wasn’t exactly the right position for him in Pochettino’s offense now that the season is over.

Instead, after playing in place of both Christian Eriksen and Son Heung-Min who would suffer their fair share of knocks, Dele Alli emerged as the Argentine manager’s starter at central attacking midfielder and the main partner for Harry Kane, playing behind him.

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 14: Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates scoring his penalty with team mates during the Barclays Premier League match between Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur at Etihad Stadium on February 14, 2016 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – FEBRUARY 14: Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates scoring his penalty with team mates during the Barclays Premier League match between Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur at Etihad Stadium on February 14, 2016 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images) /

This forced Christian Eriksen to a different position and one that he’s not exactly comfortable with — playing out wide left. With Eriksen a must-start, this pushed Nacer Chadli to the bench. Son Heung-Min who, when healthy had a role as an attacking midfielder, also got relegated to the bench because Dele Alli became a key member of the starting XI.

Although Mauricio Pochettino would be playing a couple of his players out of position, it actually made Tottenham much better down the stretch.

According to Harry Kane, when Alli is playing, he’ll give you chances which is what every striker (and other players) wants so that they can score goals and help the team win games.

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And so far, that has happened with Tottenham and England this year.

“You train with each other every day during the season and obviously when you are on the field you have that understanding, especially with Dele in that position for the first goal against Turkey,” Harry Kane said (via London Evening Standard).

“It’s great to have players who you play with week-in, week-out in the England team, but whoever is playing, we have a lot of great players in the side.”

“In training and in pre-season we kind of had that understanding straight away and it is good to have that when you are a striker and the No. 10 is playing in behind you.”

“You know you are going to get service and you know you are going to get chances.”

An interesting statistic at the very end from the linked article above points out how much a Harry Kane-Dele Alli partnership has meant for Tottenham this season.

Next: Tottenham Earned £95.222 million for 2015-16 BPL Season

Both players started 32 games this past season and Spurs only lost three. However, when one of these two players weren’t playing (due to rest or suspension), Tottenham would lose eight games and win six out of a total of 21 matches played.

These numbers point out that Mauricio Pochettino desperately needs both players to be in his starting XI at all times because after one season it has proved to be a fruitful relationship between the two young players; the Golden Boot and PFA Young Player of the Year winners.

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