Coutinho played 152 league games for Liverpool and scored 41 goals. Alli has played 153 league games for Spurs and has scored 50 goals. Alli is more of a goal threat.
I could agree that Coutinho may be a better player, but to limit Alli's attributes to just age and HGS is a little unfair IMHO. I know his form has dipped, but he's still capable of puling off things that aren't expected. Some of his play is genius, and his instinct for goals is clear. I'm not sure why he gets such a hard time from some folks these days.
Some of it is justified, to an extent. While I definitely think he’s suffered from playing up front or in a deeper midfield role at times, it’s also clear just from looking at footage of him when he burst onto the scene that he was sharper in his movement both with and without the ball, recently he’s seemed to take more touches and have more of a languid style. Whether it’s just his body continuing to develop (after all he was young when he broke into the team) or whether he’s lost focus, he’s got things to work on. I say this as someone who is very much in favour of keeping him and trying to find a way to build a team around him, GLC, Bergwijn and the usual suspects.
I'm wondering if it's because some people have decided we need to make our Coutinho sale to reinvest and have decided he's the expendable player (or, at least, is expendable when compared to Kane or Son) - the thing is that throwing that money at Coutinho is not only ironic in the worst way, but misses the point that Saltypool selling Coutinho allowed them to pay the tap-up tax on van Dijk and have enough left over for Alisson, so if we sold Dele the equivalent spend would be on (to pick two names out of the air) Zakaria and Celik as that would fix the gaps we have at DM and as an attacking LB (unless Sessegnon's being moved there after all, in which case swap Celik for Atal or Aarons) I've seen it suggested on r/coys that Dele should be played like Thomas Mueller, starting on the flank but drifting into the centre to play off the CF (because, as with all football-related things on Reddit, the Bundesliga is the only thing that matters when it comes to tactics and player acquisition) - however I feel this can be tweaked, and instead he plays on the flank in the same way Poch deployed Jay Rodriguez when he was at Southampton, where he'll make a late break not into the centre of the area but at the far post where he can benefit from sneaking past markers or getting onto the flotsam and jetsam in the area
He’s played a bit off the left for us I think. It worked well when Eriksen was at 10 because he dropped into midfield quite a bit and gave Dele space. We’re so well stocked on the left right now though that I don’t really see that as anywhere near a first choice option as it stands.
Best play him on the right, then - Bergwijn can play either flank so can cover Sonny the next time he gets a lengthy ban for shoving somebody who elbowed him in the back of the head, Lucas' Townsendification is getting alarming, and Lamela can't be expected to play a full season
Yeah he’s flexible, as are Sonny and Bergwijn, even Lamela could play inside if we needed. It’s nice to have. Dele definitely best as a 10 though. Playing him on the right would be most similar to how Muller produced his best for Bayern and Germany, IIRC he nominally played on the right but moved inside a lot.
Alli is a good player but for me those are the only two things I prefer about him to Coutinho I just think Coutinho would link up better with the ‘new’ boys - GLC and Bergwijn than Alli although Alli and Kane obviously have a great understanding
Coutinho’s a quality player and in general I’d love to have him at Spurs but even by including a player to go the other way (if Barca even wanted one that is) he’d still take up a large chunk of finances, both fees and wages. At a time where our defence and DM need major upgrading, I’d much rather we put all our focus and money into doing just that and then if by some miracle we can actually still afford Coutinho, 100% go for it.
Lower League Rando Watch FootballBSider claim that we've offered a contract to Stoke's 16-year old striker Mohamed Sankoh, whose contract ticks over soon While he's not played outside of Stoke's youth setup, he's reportedly got a few clubs chasing after him, but mostly this sounds like an attempt at future proofing the squad: if he does make a breakthrough he'll eventually count as both HG and CG, plus there's the advantage that even though he initially came through Sparta Rotterdam's youth team he's been at Stoke for a couple of years so wouldn't need to acclimatise compared to signing a 16-year old from the Eredivisie or Ligue 1 might have to do That being said, we are collecting a lot of youth strikers at the moment: Parrott a couple of years ago, Etete last summer - are we overcompensating for having approximately 43 youth keepers at one point last season?
Interesting... What are you trying to insinuate here ps? How come all the other posters who have called him alli havent been picked out (which there have been 4 others on this and the page before)
Alli is his surname legally, most footballers are known (to the public) by their surname because it's used in commentary most of the time. Can you imagine a game where the commentary went along the lines of "Steve passes to Alan, Alan goes around carl with ease but is brought down just outside the area by Steve"
What a strange question And like another poster has said, why pick on me when others have called him Alli before? Strange
Yeah ‘Dele’ or ‘Alli’ shouldn’t really be an issue. I often switch up names to be honest, for instance: Davinson Sanchez - Dave Paolo Gazzaniga - Sexy Sol Campbell - **** It’s just personal preference you see.
I give you Pele, Kaka, Hulk and Fred to name four of so many who don’t have their real name on their shirt. Why pick on Dele?
