Frank Lampard insists Everton ace Dele Alli still has ‘a lot to prove’
Frank Lampard has insisted that Everton midfielder Dele Alli has “a lot to prove” as he struggles to find his feet with the Blues.
The 25-year-old has failed to rejuvenate his career with just six rather forgettable performances for the Toffees since joining in January.
Lampard declared the former Tottenham ace still has a job to do when the time comes despite looking unlikely to make a notable impact.
“He has a lot to prove,” the Blues boss told the Express.
“The basics are that when you have a lot to prove you have to get your head down, you have to listen to that stuff because that’s the job we are in, and you have to prove people wrong on the pitch, and that starts on the training pitch. I see it like that.”
He added: “He is working, and I am seeing him work. But I always believed it would take some time. Dele has to train and show he is in that way of thinking. Every time he comes on he has to show he is worthy of starting a game. I am not saying he has not done that. Some players say they are better when they start. I said that as a player.
“The reality from my side of the fence is you work on the individual. When the time is right and I feel he is there and will help the team, he will do it. He is the same as every other player when it comes to that.”
Flop
Alli couldn’t look further away from helping the team if he tried.
He joined Everton with a serious lack of game time this season which would have made it very hard for him to hit the ground running, which not many expected anyway, but nobody expected him the be this bad.
For a long time, his form was excused because of the managers he was playing for. Spurs chose several defensive managers in Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte that saw Alli fall to the waste line at the club.
Many believed he would kick back into gear under an attack-minded manager such as Lampard but that couldn’t have been farther from the truth.
Lampard might not want to ridicule him in the media and is understandably maintaining a fairly positive outlook on the flop, but it is neon impossible to see him making any sort of impact as the former Chelsea boss suggests.
In other Everton news, Lampard fires back at Stan Collymore after his brutal Alli criticism.
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