In what has been a hitherto disastrous season for the club, Everton must now look towards their latest signing and current outcast Dele Alli.
Just a few seasons ago, his form earned him comparisons to Premier League greats Steven Gerrard and Paul Scholes, as Dele was branded a “freak of a talent” by former Tottenham midfielder Darren Anderton.
Unfortunately, during his time at Spurs, the £19.8m-rated former England international has been “destroyed” systematically by Jose Mourinho (in the words of Kevin Campbell) and more recently, Nuno Espirito Santo.
After signing from MK Dons, Dele announced himself to the Premier League with some stellar performances for Tottenham. His first two seasons in the Premier League saw him rack up 18 goals coming in his second season in England’s top flight.
Since then, he has endured a slow and painful descent from the very top of his game, although the fluctuation in management has not helped the 25-year-old by any stretch of the imagination.
Over the course of the last few years, Dele has developed somewhat of a positional identity crisis. Comments from the likes of Mourinho, who said that “Dele Alli is not a midfield player”, will not have helped; with contrasting views from his compatriot and successor Nuno Espirito Santo, who played Dele as a central midfielder, bound to have confused the player even more.
We now know that Dele’s best position is when he is deployed as an attacking midfielder. This is evidenced within his best season in 2016/17, when he netted an incredible 22 goals and chipped in with a further 14 assists in 50 games for then-Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino.
If Frank Lampard correctly understands Dele’s potential in terms of goal threat, he could shape Everton’s attacking setup around the 25-year-old.
Everton have often struggled to get a grip on games this season, as indicated by their average possession of 41.6%. A big part of this struggle is their lack of ability to win possession in the final third, which is often the first opportunity to nullify the opponent’s attacking transition.
The Toffees rank 17th when it comes to possession won in the final third, which indicates a lack of pressing authority to win back possession high up the pitch. Interestingly, whilst Dele’s decline has seen his end product diminish, his defensive statistics have been exceptional, with his pressures in the attacking third placing him in the 90th percentile among positional peers in Europe’s top five leagues.
If Lampard does what Mourinho and Nuno didn’t and trust in Dele as a playmaker, the 25-year-old could well repay his manager’s trust with the type of performances which we so often saw five years ago. Therefore, the time has come for the ex-Spurs maestro to be granted his first start in Merseyside blue when they take on West Ham on Sunday.
In other news – Everton now already lining up Lampard’s successor, supporters will be livid
