Revealed: Lampard's plan to reignite Dele Alli's career
FT Desk
- Updated: 5 Aug 2022 07:43 BST
- 3 min read
Once an England regular and Champions League finalist with Tottenham, Dele Alli's career has gone into a tailspin in recent years.
Dele Alli's most prolific Premier League season came back in 2016/17, when he scored 18 and assisted a further nine goals as Tottenham finished second to champions Chelsea under Mauricio Pochettino.
He contributed three assists on Spurs' run to the Champions League final in 2019 - in which they lost 2-0 to Liverpool - and boasts four goals and 10 provisions in total at European football's top table.
A 37-time capped England international, it is easy to forget that Alli is still only 26.
DELE AGAIN!
📺 https://t.co/2VsWpyRq02 pic.twitter.com/1aTDHVS0Vc— Everton (@Everton) July 24, 2022
He first fell out of favour under Jose Mourinho and moved to Everton in January, but only made one league start for the club - an abject 5-1 defeat to Arsenal in May with Premier League survival already secured.
But Everton manager Frank Lampard could now lean on Alli as his first-choice attacker, with Richarlison sold to the players former club Tottenham and Dominic Calvert-Lewin ruled out for six weeks with a knee injury.
Lampard: 'Alli's a goalscorer'
"It's possible to work with him on being a goalscorer," said Lampard, who knows a thing or two about goals having scored 177 of them in the Premier League. "He has an instinct to get in goalscoring positions, and we need to find ways to get him in those positions and probably give him confidence back as well. That’s the reason I brought him to the club.
"We all knew the position [at Spurs]. At the same time, we also knew if we could get him in the sweet spot of where he was then he would be a big asset for us. It's a clean slate on many levels for everybody this season and for Dele for sure. He's worked hard in pre-season and he'll be a very useful player for us if he keeps applying himself in the right way."
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Alli scored twice as Everton beat Blackpool 4-2 in pre-season, and he could be set to start in their season opener against Chelsea on Saturday.
"I think it's sometimes support and sometimes tough love," Lampard said when asked about how reignite Alli's form. "Sometimes you have to hear serious things to get the best out of yourself. Dele or any player that is."
