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Tottenham hero reacts to what he’s heard from two Sky pundits about Dele Alli

Lee Clarke

Mon 27 September 2021 19:45, UK

Tottenham were largely embarrassing during Sunday’s crushing 3-1 defeat by Arsenal. In the aftermath of the game, Spurs hero Graham Roberts has offered Nuno Espirito Santo some advice on how best to use Dele Alli.

The midfielder has earned a reprieve under Nuno Espirito Santo. After falling down the pecking order under Jose Mourinho, he’s now a first-team regular once more.

Despite that, he was hooked at half-time yesterday. A drab first-half saw Alli make way for Oliver Skipp at the interval as the Tottenham boss tried to mix things up.

The 25-year-old has started each league game this season, operating in a number of midfield roles. Yesterday, he was deployed in the middle of the park, with minimal impact.

Roberts doesn’t feel as though Espirito Santo is getting the best out of Alli. He has taken to Twitter after yesterday’s defeat to offer some advice to the Tottenham manager.

He believes that Alli should be utilised in a more advanced role as the season progresses.

Conundrum: Alli quickly becoming a problem for Tottenham

It doesn’t seem too long ago that Alli was being primed as the next Zinedine Zidane! His form when he first checked in at Tottenham was a joy and his potential seemingly had no ceiling.

Now, he’s facing a real fight for his Tottenham future. Alli scored the winner against Wolves back in August but he looked short of confidence yesterday.

In fairness, Alli is the type of player who you have to play in his natural position. That would probably be as a number 10 and he made just two appearances there this month.

The player has talent but in a defence-minded team, it’s easy to have some sympathy for him.

Espirito Santo has plenty of work to do. With that in mind, getting Alli back to his best looks like his biggest conundrum right now.