- Jan 27, 2011
- 1,937
- 10,220
Carragher is spot on with Alli. He's not a great midfield player. It's good others see the same thing.
He's a second striker, and one without pace. It's a bit of a luxury in the modern system.
The only thing Carrager has ever been "spot on" with is his aim spitting out of car windows, revolting dimwit that he is.
Alli is a bit of an enigma in that he's been moulded by Pochettino to play a very specific role in tandem with Kane and Eriksen, and a functioning midfield.
I went back and watched some of his early games with us and there weren't nearly so many flicks. Poch developed him this way as we moved towards vertical football with very high risk passes in the final third.
Alli's game became built on these "flicks", and he had a monster season at 20 years of age. So it's not surprising that when his form dips his instinct is to revert back to what gave him success, albeit with less confidence and poorer execution.
I get the frustration with it, and I think it's fair to question whether he'll have a challenge on his hands evolving his game to suit a counter attacking 433 (whether as an 8, LWF, or false 9).
He's certainly going to need to be a lot more efficient with the ball, than how he's been COACHED HOW TO PLAY as a 9 1/2 for 5 years.
That's his challenge. If he fails, other players will eventually take his place because - hot take - JM quite likes winning.
I just wish in the meantime people would let JM do his work and not make Alli the scapegoat for everything that's gone wrong in the past 18 months.