Dele Alli is an odd player, he clearly has supreme talent but in the last year or so has regressed as a footballer and is quickly moving from a player people love to hate to someone they just hate.
This is because at 23 he still has so long left in his career, but Alli has stagnated and is no longer providing moments of genius or even consistent end product.
The England international picked up an injury in pre-season – which meant he missed his team’s first three games of the season but was brought off the bench in the North London derby and looked lively causing Arsenal some problems.
Mauricio Pochettino then decided to start him against Olympiakos and Alli was poor missing a good opportunity when one-on-one, and he was hooked on the hour mark.
Last night Alli was given another opportunity to impress against Colchester United in the Carabao Cup, but apart from scoring his penalty in the shootout the former MK Dons man offered very little and was pretty much a passenger in a match with a League Two side.
This is not good enough from a player who just two years ago contributed to 31 goals directly.
The issue for Alli is that this is a continuation of last season where he was also poor in a lot of games.
One form of motivation for Alli maybe if Gareth Southgate dared to drop him from the England squad until he finds some sort of form at club level.
Consistently average displays should not be rewarded with England recognition.
I don’t know what is wrong with Alli but what I do know is that his displays over the last year have been unacceptable and something needs to change before his career drifts into the wilderness.