After a handful of games, Alli has made a case for himself as the greatest talent on a talented team by being able to hold his own and then some against the best in the world at the age of 19. But I think Mason has been even better with Dier. Alli hasn’t shown the passing or decision making Mason has. I think he might be even better farther forward, where his special dribbling talent makes him a nightmare for the other team in the penalty box. Besides, not handing a starting spot back to a player who risked career-threatening injury to get us a win we desperately needed, and showed tremendous courage and skill to get it, is so wrong I don’t think we should consider it. I would keep Alli in the starting lineup by using him to spell Mason, Lamela and Eriksen in turn--playing them all three games out of four, in other words.
I'm going to advocate sticking with Alli, once again. The kid ( and let's not forget that's pretty much what he still is) is a special talent. Yes, he's raw, yes he needs to learn and become a polished act. But, he has just seemingly effortlessly jumped 2 divisions and doesn't look out if place in the slightest. He will only learn from playing and as hard as it may seem on Mason or Bentaleb he would be in my first choice eleven.
I assume most of you have seen Gary Neville's assessment of Spurs on MNF but if you haven't here it is. Yes... he actually heaps praise on us!
Following on from that video, I think what has been encouraging from Pochettino thus far this season is that we're seeing slight changes in his way of playing that are helping. He's gone from a 'double pivot' (i.e. two players multitasking in midfield, Mason/Bentaleb for example) that proved effective at times last season but not effective at all at other times, to players with more defined roles - Dier and Alli or Mason appear to have more defined roles in the team when they play than the midfielders had last year. I think we're also seeing more flexibility and rotation of the 4 forward players which is clearly part of the game plan and works well with the right players on the pitch. Its not revolution or the fabled 'Plan B', but it is effective (so far) evolution which is good to see. He's also demonstrated a mixed bag of in-game tactical switches as well - for example the Stoke game was a prime example of how not to manage a match when 2 goals up, but the City game where Son was moved out to the left in the second half to help Davies out was good management. He's still learning after all, hopefully over time the good will outweigh the bad. We're building up the right players to play that way too - Dier, Bentaleb and Winks being the more defensive midfielders, Mason, Alli and Carroll being the more creative players who can give that 'go forward' we've desperately lacked in the past, and a plethora of forward players who are happy operating in a number of different areas throughout a match.
