Thursday 28 September 2017 17:49, UK
While Harry Kane continues to take the plaudits, critics have suggested the form of his Tottenham team-mate Dele Alli has dropped. WhoScored.com investigate...
The 21-year-old has enjoyed two impressive seasons with Spurs, and backed up his breakthrough campaign, in which he scored 10 times and set up nine, with 18 goals and seven assists last year.
But he's made a slow start to his third term with the club. Slow, that is, compared to the high standards Alli has set himself.
Operating alongside Christian Eriksen, as one of the two players behind Kane in a 3-4-2-1 formation, the youngster is the man tasked with sticking as close to his compatriot as possible in order to make surging late runs into the box and attack the space Kane leaves, similar to Thomas Muller at his peak and when deployed behind Robert Lewandowski for Bayern.
This is one of the strongest qualities Alli boasts and is perhaps an underrated trait to his game. This ability to attack space forces defences to retreat and into errors as they focus their attention on Kane rather than Alli and it is for this reason why he has scored 30 Premier League goals since the start of the 2015/16 season.
However, only two of those have come this season. It's not for want of trying, though. Alli is averaging 2.7 shots per 90 in England's top tier this term, the same as in 2015/16 and a marginal dip from last season (2.8).
Looking further still, though, shows Alli is having just one shot per 90 in the opposition penalty box, his lowest in his three Premier League seasons. He is attacking the space just fine, but opponents are putting more bodies between him and the goal, meaning they are able to clear the danger before the Spurs star has the chance to get his shot away.
With greater onus on keeping Alli from shooting, and understandably so given his record, the former MK Dons man has looked to create for others, which has seen key passes per 90 rise to 2.2, his best in a Premier League campaign. That has only translated onto one assist so far but that number should improve; his team-mates won't continue to spurn those chances.
Noticeably, there has been a significant increase in the number of times Alli has been fouled this season. Alli has been fouled 4.1 times per 90 minutes this season, one of the highest returns in the Premier League this season, and an increase on the 2.2 times he was fouled on average per 90 minutes from last season.
Disrupting the flow of the goal scoring midfielder, not to mention hoping to wind up the Spurs star, means his output has lessened from the previous campaign. Indeed, a goal every 266 minutes this season is a huge drop from the one league goal every 169.2 minutes he averaged in 2016/17.
A lack of goals and assists has contributed to a WhoScored.com rating of 7.20 so far, his lowest in the Premier League. As mentioned above, it isn't for want of trying, but rather opponents becoming aware that they can minimise Alli's impact in the final third.
This presents another learning curve for the youngster as he strives to become one of the best in the game. "It's true that everyone can do better but I am happy. It is a period that he needs to find his balance," Mauricio Pochettino said of Alli after he scored Spurs' only goal in the Carabao Cup win over Barnsley and the player had come under staunch criticism following a series of underwhelming displays for both club and country.
He evidently has the faith of his manager, which is understandable considering Alli's impact under the Argentinian, and an assist in the 3-2 win over West Ham certainly helped as the player looks to regain his best form.
And it seems a dip in performance levels shouldn't be of serious concern for Spurs. The challenge for Alli is to adapt to the new challenges opponents are handing him - starting with a so far defensively resolute Huddersfield on Saturday, live on Sky Sports.
