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Flop: Dele Alli
Shorn of top goalscorers Son Heung Min and Harry Kane, one school of thought from Tottenham fans regarding a solution was for Jose Mourinho to play Dele Alli as a makeshift striker, with Lucas Moura and Steven Bergwijn in the wider positions with Giovani Lo Celso acting as the team’s creative hub. Mourinho evidently disagreed, deploying Lucas as the main striker with Alli sitting in front of Harry Winks and Gedson Fernandes, who were operating as deeper-lying midfielders.
Unfortunately, the decision didn’t pay off, and Alli suffered one of his worst games in recent memory. The England man made just 16 passes during the game, and while 14 of them were accurate, none of them were key passes, largely belying his supposedly creative role. And when he found himself in decent positions in the box, he didn’t come close to scoring – failing to register a shot.
A frustrating night ended with Alli throwing his boots down after being substituted in the 64th minute – and worse for him, his replacement Erik Lamela re-energised the side. The truth is that it wasn’t so much Alli’s fault; he’s just not a playmaker and his best matches under Mourinho this season came when he was allowed to play further forward as a pseudo-forward. Hopefully the Portuguese recognises this – otherwise Alli could be in for more frustrating performances.
Hit: Giovani Lo Celso
On an under-par night in general for Tottenham, their best player was comfortably midfielder Giovani Lo Celso. The Argentine wasn’t even deployed in his best position tonight, starting as a pseudo-winger while Dele Alli played in a more central role, but despite an early booking, he worked hard for the entire match and essentially, anything good that Spurs produced went through him.
Lo Celso registered 3 shots, 2 of them on target – the most of any Tottenham player – and he came closest to breaking down Leipzig’s defensive solidity when he hit a beautiful left-footed free-kick towards the right-hand side of the goal – only for Peter Gulacsi to use his fingertips to turn it onto the post.
More tellingly, along with Harry Winks – who was also impressive – it was Lo Celso who appeared to be driving his teammates on during the stickier patches of the game, sprinting back to attempt to win back the ball and pressuring Leipzig’s players, even if his efforts didn’t really come off. In the post-Christian Eriksen era, the Argentine is cementing himself as perhaps the key man for Spurs.
