Everton ace Dele Alli backed to return to best form by talkSPORT pundit
Everton will be looking for someone to stand up and step into the shoes of Richarlison after his exit for Tottenham and Dele Alli could be that man.
That’s according to talkSPORT pundit Darren Ambrose who has thrown his support behind the England international who rarely featured for Frank Lampard’s Toffees last season.
Ambrose is not even fazed by Alli’s alarming open goal miss from merely yards out as Everton were thoroughly beaten 4-0 by MLS side Minnesota United during their pre-season tour of the United States.
“Someone else has to step up now and maybe this is the year for Dele Alli,” Ambrose said. “I wouldn’t read anything into it (his friendly miss).
“It builds confidence if you’re putting chances away but that would have only made it 4-1 and Frank Lampard will be looking at that.
“If you can take any positives out of that, he’s arriving in the right area. OK, it’s hit him on the heel and it’s gone wide but I wouldn’t read anything into that.
“I’m backing Dele Alli to have a good season because there is a player in there that we haven’t seen for a long time and I think he has to have a good season.
“If he doesn’t have a good season this year, I think he’s going to edge towards the end of his career and he might even end early but with their best player leaving, it opens up a spot.”
Really?
Of all the players at Finch Farm, Alli is perhaps the last you would expect to suddenly find his mojo and become a star almost overnight.
His simply awful miss in Minneapolis was all the proof anyone needed that he is still nowhere near the player that burst onto the scene at Spurs and took the Premier League by storm and Everton can’t settle for anything less.
Richarlison and Alli are also very different players and the Englishman is not suited to being a left-winger in the way that Lampard will want him to play so if he is going to be a star for him, he will have to be an attacking midfielder centrally.
That might not be a position that Lampard necessarily uses all that much and he still has Anthony Gordon who could play there if required and that doesn’t take into account any new signings either so Alli may not have his second breakthrough season considering all of that.