Former Leeds player Micky Gray has defended Tottenham midfielder Dele Alli for his overall performance last season.
England international Alli has received criticism after failing to be as effective last season as he was in the 2017/18 season, scoring seven fewer goals and chipping in with nine fewer assists.
Speaking on talkSPORT‘s Jim White programme [Tuesday, 10:10am], however, Gray pointed to the fact that despite being only 23, Alli has been around for a longer time than a lot of players in his age bracket.
“When somebody breaks onto the scene like [Alli] did after his move from MK Dons, we kind of just took it for granted that he’s got wonderful ability, he’s got great energy levels and I think that should be a given,” Gray said.
“But when you see him, he makes wonderful runs into the area. And we’ve seen some of the brilliant goals that he’s scored over the last two or three seasons.
“So when he stops assisting as much as he has, and when he stops scoring as many goals, I think there’s a lot of players get judged like that, certainly centre-forwards do.
“There’s a judgement. We see what [Lionel] Messi and [Cristiano] Ronaldo do and Dele Alli is not on the same planet as those two players.
“But we judge players like that now, for example he’s scored 30-odd goals this season, he’s had 20 assists every single season and we’re talking about those two players a lot.
“So when younger players break onto the scene, like Dele Alli – and we’ve got so many coming through at the moment – it looks like they’ve underachieved.”
OPINION
Gray is spot on with his opinion here. You must remember that despite not winning a trophy in his career as of yet, Alli has still achieved a great deal more than some players in his age bracket. He has been to a World Cup semi-final and a Champions League final, as well as being a fantastic player for Spurs in the Premier League over the last few seasons. And this is the thing: it has felt as though Alli has been in the English top flight for so long, which just shows how far he has come and how much he has developed, as well as how he has become a household name for Premier League fans. Just because his statistics show he has had a downturn in form does not mean he is any worse as a player; in fact, at Alli’s age, he will surely only get better.