Tottenham Hotspur have had a long 2018/19 campaign given summer international exertions and our injury hit journey through the Premier League and Champions League campaigns, and on the final day’s action last Sunday we could only close the domestic year out with a point.
Eric Dier’s effort three minutes in wasn’t built on and in the space of six odd minutes in the second half, Everton had established a lead before Christian Eriksen had tied the scores up at 2-2.
There were some leggy and poor performances and manager Mauricio Pochettino did substitute Dele Alli at the halftime break and he was certainly off the pace.
Speaking to Sky Sports following the game, Pochettino certainly didn’t disagree that Alli had been very poor on the day, but he did give a reason for the performance.
“He didn’t start in the warm-up, he was feeling strange and then his performance was very poor in the first half because he can’t cope with the situation. So because of caution, he was out. I think it is not a problem. We need to assess him, but I think he was tired, but for the circumstance again we played with him. I think in a normal condition he was for sure not starting the game, but we started with him and, before that problem starts something, at half-time we made the change.”
Whatever the issue proves to be, with a good break to the Champions League Final against Liverpool out in Madrid, the 23-year-old has plenty of time to recover and rest and return to his best.
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