Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Dele Alli has been told by Graeme Souness to “get back to the basics of being in love with the game again”.
The Spurs star has been sparingly-used by boss Mauricio Pochettino this season and has only featured in two of his side's opening nine Premier League games.
The England international endured a campaign to forget last season, with a thigh injury and several hamstring injuries seeing him miss 23 games of his side’s campaign.
And the former Liverpool and Rangers captain has urged the former Mk Dons man to rediscover his love for the game.
“Two years ago, I thought Dele Alli was going to be a superstar,” Souness wrote in his weekly Sunday Times column.
“A modern-day goalscoring midfielder from the same mould as Terry McDermott, my partner at Liverpool, or, more recently, Frank Lampard at Chelsea. Somebody who could be relied upon to get well into double figures in terms of goals every season for their club.
“Instead he's stagnated. Why? Will he point to the hamstring injuries he's had? Is he blaming the training at Tottenham or his teammates?
“He has to look at himself first, in the mirror in the morning when he's shaving, and ask: ''why have I not progressed?" He needs to ask why Harry Kane has kicked on and handled all the peripheral stuff that comes with being a top player, and he hasn't.
“Can he honestly say he's been fully focused on his football or has he forgotten what made him kick a ball in the first place? When he was kicking a ball against a wall as a five- or six-year old or, later on, playing with his mates in matches, then being one of those talented and lucky enough to play professionally.
“Why should it suddenly become a burden? It should still be the priority. Why would you allow your eye to be taken off the ball?
“When you were a little boy you loved doing it, so get back to the basics of being in love with the game again.”
