Joe Ellis

Sat 5 February 2022 6:00, UK

The deadline day signing of Dele Alli at Everton raised a large number of eyebrows in the football world and it might seem like a risk at first.

It is important to remember though that every single transfer in the history of the game was a risk because nobody can predict the future.

The 25-year-old has endured a torrid couple of seasons at Tottenham Hotspur and it seemed like he had fallen out of love with the game whenever he was on the pitch.

That is a difficult thing to find again and even tougher for the manager who has to try and help him do so.

Paul Merson believes “Frank is probably the only person who can get it out of him. He played the same way,” and he is most likely right.

If you’re Alli, there is no better man to be working under than Lampard right now and the England legend can help to reignite his career at Goodison Park.

It will take more than just belief however and Lampard has to use Alli in the right way to squeeze every bit of ability out of him.

If Everton line up with a 4-3-3, the expected formation Lampard will utilise, to begin with, then Alli has to be the most advanced of the midfield trio.

He has a natural eye for goal that few midfielders have, except his boss of course, and that can’t be shackled to a deep-lying role in the Toffees midfield.

What we need to see from the 25-year-old is lung-busting runs into the penalty area to create havoc for opposition defenders with Dominic Calvert-Lewin already bullying his opposite number.

Lampard was the expert at these kinds of runs and work will certainly be going on at Finch Farm to get Alli up to speed with this.

If he can get back to his best, he could have a similar impact to that of Jesse Lingard at West Ham last season that saw him earn a recall to the national setup.

With a World Cup later this year, that is exactly what Alli must do to keep his career on track.

In other Everton news, Jeff Stelling has predicted Lampard’s first game in charge against Brentford in the FA Cup.