Dele Alli has accepted that he must develop a more ruthless edge in front of goal if he is to take his game to the next level. The Tottenham Hotspur midfielder has come a long way since the beginning of last season, establishing himself as a key player at club level and also with England.
Alli, 20, is enjoying his debut campaign in the Champions League this season yet he was beating himself up after the 0-0 draw at Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday night for missing a gilt-edged headed chance. The midfielder burst into the area to get on to Kieran Trippier’s cross in the first half and, when he timed his leap, he had put himself in the position to score, but the effort flew off target.
Alli scored 10 goals for Tottenham last season, plus one for England, and he has three so far this time for his club and one more for his country. They are respectable numbers but Alli knows that they could improve, given the regularity with which he gets himself into dangerous areas.
“It was a fantastic ball by Trippier against Leverkusen and, to be honest with you, I want to be scoring goals and I feel like I should have put that in,” Alli said. “I couldn’t believe it when I missed it but I’ve got to keep working hard and make sure that I start being more clinical. Personally, I feel like I should have scored that one.”
Mauricio Pochettino has lamented his players’ lack of ruthlessness in front of goal on several occasions this season but, even after misses, Alli keeps putting himself in scoring positions. It seems that his head never drops. “It is hard [after a miss] but you don’t want to think about it too much,” Alli said. “You’ve got to put it behind you and just look for the next chance and try to put the next one away.
“After the miss [against Leverkusen], it was important that I kept working for the team and doing my job. It’s all about being professional. You can’t be dwelling on mistakes. When things don’t go your way, you’ve got to keep trying to do the right things.”
Alli is looking forward to the Premier League visit to Bournemouth on Saturday in the lunchtime kick-off and, in terms of the Champions League, he feels that Tottenham are on the rise. “We were disappointed after losing the first game to Monaco but to take four points from the past two has been a good turnaround,” he said. “We definitely believe that we belong at this level. We’ve got a great team here.”
