Danny Murphy says ‘let Dele Alli keep on doing his stuff’ ahead of Tottenham’s clash with Southampton

Star quality: Spurs’ Dele Alli
Julian Finney/Getty Images
Danny Murphy23 December 2016

Dele Alli had an outstanding first season in the Premier League and even though some disagree with me, I believe his performances have been strong in his second season.

He is similar to Frank Lampard in the way he appreciates space and times his runs to ensure he finds great goalscoring positions. He is hard for midfielders to track, or for defenders to pick up when he is running towards them.

The only thing that he has lacked compared to last year is accurate finishing but I have not seen him hide once. Even if he misses a couple of chances, he will continue to make the same runs until he takes one of them.

That probably sounds easier than it is. Even experienced players struggle with it sometimes. If things aren’t working for you, it’s hard to tell yourself to keep at it. I used to have chats with myself during games if things were going badly... “Go and get the ball, make something happen”.

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Alli has that quality at a very young age. In his second season at this level, he will have realised that more opponents are aware of his qualities and will have made plans to try to stop him.

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But Alli is lucky because it is not easy to stop him. He is a terrific player who must be given the freedom to crack on. He is willing, he is brave, he is hugely effective. If he doesn’t play well for a game or two, what does it matter?

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