Chris Sutton claims Tottenham playmaker Dele Alli hasn’t been at the races this season

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Chris Sutton has criticised Tottenham’s Dele Alli for not being fully at the races this season and believes his form has dropped off.

The 23-year-old has just come to the close of another campaign with Spurs and has linked up with England for the Nations League tournament his week.

He started in the Champions League final defeat to Liverpool and has once again been a mainstay in Mauricio Pochettino’s team, despite a couple of injuries disrupting him.

The attacking midfielder made 38 appearances this campaign for the North London club, scoring seven goals and supplying eight assists in return.

His 15-goal contribution is someway short of the 14 goals and 17 assists he managed in the 2017/18 campaign.

Pundit Sutton has noticed the drop off from Alli and also doesn’t believe he deserves to start for England, who play Holland in the semi-finals on Thursday night.

“I don’t think Dele All should start [for England],” Sutton told BBC Radio 5 live.

“If you look at his numbers all season in terms of goals and assists it’s down. I think in terms of his impact this season for Spurs I don’t think he’s really been at the races, albeit a beautiful touch in the game against Ajax which set Lucas Moura in for the all important goal.

“I think you’d have to say Ross Barkley is in better form, I think you can play [Jordan] Henderson up one and [Declan] Rice sitting.”

TBR’s View:

Alli, who earns £100,000-a-week (Spotrac), has set the bar so high for himself since he moved to Spurs and there are going to be some seasons when his form drops.

But most importantly he’s still popped up with some key moments and there is no doubting his ability.

He could perhaps do with a rest when it comes to England duty this week, but whether international boss Gareth Southgate will want to leave him out remains to be seen.

Alli is certainly capable of getting back towards his best next season and the 10-goal mark should be a bare minimum for him across all competitions given his composure in front of goal.