Gus Poyet has enormous criticism of Tottenham star, compares to Paul Pogba

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Gus Poyet has told TalkSPORT that Dele Alli is spending too much time focusing on things outside of football and it is affecting his performances for Tottenham Hotspur – just like Manchester United’s Paul Pogba.

The 23-year-old has struggled this season, only scoring seven goals. He has looked below his best since taking part in the World Cup last summer, and was one of Spurs’ worst performers against Ajax on Tuesday night.

The north Londoners suffered a 1-0 defeat in the first leg of the Champions League tie. A lack of creativity and dynamism was missing from Spurs, with only one shot on target throughout the match.

Alli was guilty of that and received huge criticism from Ruud Gullit, who described Alli as “so bad”. Poyet joined in the criticism of Alli, claiming he is doing too much off the pitch – which Pogba has been criticised for in the past.

“Everyone was expecting a lot from him, especially without Son,” Poyet said. “I was one of the biggest critics of Dele Alli, because I think he’s got so much quality. Obviously in our time, we didn’t have all these sponsors.

“Instagram, the clothing brands and other things, but now there are many things that can take you away from football. I was one of the ones who that I would love him to concentrate on football.

“Another one is Paul Pogba. Physically, technically, he’s got everything, but unfortunately for some reason there’s always a question mark over him.”

TBR’s view

Alli is not the player that set the 2016-17 Premier League season alight. Even last term, the England playmaker showed what he was about albeit not like the season before.

Is he tired? He certainly seems as though he has lost a yard of pace. It is down to Mauricio Pochettino to work out the problem and once again get the former MK Dons man back to his best.

Whether it is calming his social media and sponsorships down, remains to be seen.