After yet another fantastic performance in central midfield Dele Alli is being brought more and more into the media spotlight. The nineteen year old is being picked for England, raved about by ex-pro’s and starting every Premier League game for Tottenham Hotspur.
It is important to say that the midfielders impressive form and development under Mauricio Pochettino is obviously a positive, but what is key to Tottenham’s success is how things work from now on between the manager and this young talent.
Why is it so important Dele Alli get’s looked after so closely by his manager and coach staff? If you rewind to the spring and look at two young players brought into Tottenham’s first team you will see Ryan Mason and Nabil Bentaleb running on empty. The Tottenham side were inconsistent towards the end of last season and it was affected largely by the fact the midfield pairing had played 35+ games each, both having started their Premier League careers that season.
In addition both Nabil Bentaleb and Ryan Mason have had to deal with niggling injuries over summer, and in the new 2015-16 season. Nabil Bentaleb still looked to be struggling for form and fitness at Old Trafford in Tottenham’s first game of the season, before succuming to a more serious injury shortly after; as did Mason.
If Tottenham Hotspur have genuine belief of a top four finish, Mauricio Pochettino will have to rest Dele Alli in some fixtures and carefully monitor his fitness, because not only has he never played in the Premier League before, but he has also never been put through such rigorous training and fitness programmes as he will have done this season with the Argentine coach.
Other young Tottenham Hotspur players will need to be nurtured too, but most of them have worked with Pochettino now for atleast 12 months and are as fit as Pochettino demands, which should mean they are slightly less liable to run out of gas.
Lastly, although Pochettino’s progression of youth players is fantastic; it is clear what the Argentine is building at Spurs, he will need to realise how young and potentially naive Alli is and that he will sometimes make inexperienced decisions.
In conclusion, Mauricio Pochettino can, and probably will build Dele Alli into a brilliant central midfielder, but for the current season atleast he is going to have to rotate him at times and look after his mercurial talent if he wants to see his side push into the top four.
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