Pochettino admits Dele Alli was very poor against Everton and explains why

Dele Alli was named in the Tottenham Hotspur starting line up for yesterday’s fixture against Everton.

The midfielder played the full 90 minutes in Tuesday night’s dramatic Champions League win against Ajax where he played a pivotal part in providing the deft assist for Lucas Moura’s injury time winner.

Dele only lasted 45 minutes of the 2-2 draw against the Toffees at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium before being replaced at half time by Victor Wanyama to the surprise of some fans.

After the match, Mauricio Pochettino admitted that the 23-year-old’s performance was below his usual standards and that the player had felt strange during the pre-match warm up.

Pochettino described the issue as a ‘not a problem’ and decided to bring him off as a precautionary measure.

The Spurs boss does not believe that he is at risk of missing the Champions League final against Liverpool on June 1st in Madrid.

Tottenham’s draw against Everton has ensured that the club finish fourth in the Premier League.

Pochettino told Football.London when asked about Dele’s substitution: “Yes he didn’t start in the warm up, he was strange his feeling and then his performance was very poor in the first half and because he can’t cope with the situation so because of caution, he was out.

“I think it is not a problem, we need to asses him but I think he was tired for the circumstance again we played with him.

“I think in a normal condition he was for sure not starting the game, but we started with him and before that problem starts something in half time we made the change.”