Dele Alli Gives Southgate Food For Thought With Nigeria Display

Dele Alli Gives Southgate Food For Thought With Nigeria Display
20:00, 07 Jun 2018


Defeating Nigeria 2-1 was a positive way for England to continue their build up to the World Cup in Russia, which begins in less than two weeks' time.

This game served as an important hit out for the Three Lions, in a match where plenty of upside could be drawn. One particularly notable aspect of the win arose through Dele Alli's astute movement and complementary relationships with his teammates.

From his nominal attackingly geared central midfield post, the Tottenham Hotspur star did an exceptional job of unsettling the Nigeria rearguard with his intelligence, variations and spatial awareness. Always scanning his nearby surrounds, this meant Alli could gain a persistently updated mental imagery of where his teammates, his opposition and the free spaces were.

Whether it be courtesy of lethal runs in behind, his ability to find unoccupied zones in front of the Super Eagles' backline, ability to drop deep near his central defenders or by drifting wider towards the wing or the half spaces, he constantly found avenues to impact. Indeed, by altering his position so much, this duly ensured Nigeria struggled to come up with a plan to combat the elusive Englishman.

His slick rotations with his teammates were another fruitful method for him too, where he'd disorganise his adversaries by performing cohesive switches with the likes of Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling, Jesse Lingard and even Eric Dier. It really would've been a nightmare for Nigeria to keep tabs on him, for he relentlessly tweaked his positioning, never giving them useful reference points to stop him.

Once in possession, he displayed plenty of his customary passing class, skill and athleticism on the dribble and his wonderful capacity to twist his body to receive possession in ideal body postures.

Alli's outstanding numbers from the match aptly evidenced his terrific body of work too, where he created four chances, embarked on two successful dribbles and completed eight defensive actions.

Tenacious, tireless and a wonderful technician, although Alli's movement isn't as heralded as some of his other more eye-catching attributes, his performance in this regard vs. Nigeria beautifully showed yet again why this is such an integral component of his armoury.

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