There was a rumour that he'd be loaned to Ajax last season as part of the Eriksen deal, and if that went through he could've learned a lot there.
I have no idea SD, my best guess would be that the end of the loan period was fixed so that if MK Dons were playing in the League 1 playoffs, then they could have Alli playing for them. Since those games haven't finished yet I assume we don't want to terminate the loan early (are there fees involved in doing that?) despite the fact that Alli obviously won't be playing in them.
You make me optimistic as well, partly because I hadn't seen enough of Pritchard to know that he crosses well. RM is the missing piece of the puzzle, to me, though it would be a big ask of a young League One player to be the one to fill it. In any case, Chadli's been good at least as far as scoring, Eriksen was fantastic till he tailed off this year. Lamela's been our best player the last few (bad) games, but he's a central player at heart, as is Chadli. I think we need one genuine wide player in addition to the fullbacks. I may be most worried about Pochettino. He has shown some flexibility at times, but I think he needs to somehow keep what's good about his system while varying it more often and more effectively, both by incuding a wide midfielder and by playing on the counter more and exposing our defenders less. When he tried that a few games ago, the result was one goal given up and none scored in two games. If we can get Pritchard crossing quickly to Kane and Chadli, it will both open up the middle for Eriksen, Chadli and Kane, and leave our deeper players in better positions to defend.
On the one hand that set-up screams a lot of sense, given the personnel at the club and some of the players we've been linked to (i.e. Yarmolenko and Konoplyanka) On the other hand, I can see a potential flaw: Chadli's proven to be useful asset for getting goals this season as an inside forward, while Lamela's fee was likely dictated by his having an exceptional season at Roma as an inside forward - but in both cases, this was coming in from the left. Similarly, if we do sign Yarmolenko, I'm sure he could thrive but he would do so on the right - which means that such a system could easily be sussed out, as the guy on the right will stick to the flank while the guy on the left cuts in. The main quibble I have is that, while I can see we have players who can switch flanks, I'm not entirely sure they can switch roles. For example, can anyone see Townsend of Lamela remembering to hug the touchline because Chadli's cutting in on the other flank - or, for that matter, Chadli hugging his flank as it's Lamela or Townsend cutting in from the other side? ...and then there's the obvious solution: Lennon on one flank, and one of Chadli/Lamela/Townsend on the other, with them switching during the game. But will that actually happen?
He does have a great delivery but I think Brentford had it right, put him in the middle and allow him to drift wide from time to time, I just don't think he has the pace to play as a winger in the Premier League. I think he can provide more competition for Chadli and Eriksen, his movement's good, he's got a bag of tricks* and can finish, he'd suit us cutting in from the left or playing in the middle. It'd be good to get a quick winger in over the summer but if we can get Schneiderlin or another really good centre mid I wouldn't mind trying Mason out there for a few games. What we need for the way we set up at the moment is another fullback like Rose. Walker fully fit and firing would be great, as would Yedlin if we can get him to the standard of the Premier League next season, without that we just seem a bit slow. Our attackers need to improve on attacking the box though, we've put a number of good crosses into the box this season and all too often Kane's the only one there and he's not always alert to where he should be attacking either. *I'd love to see a bit of this from him next season... Even in the Boro games where he was kept quiet he still managed a few moments like this, which mostly just got him fouled. I'm calling this before they make the comparison next season, he could be our new Ginola
