Jose Mourinho was left very pleased after Dele Alli’s brilliant performance for Tottenham Hotspur to help seal a massive 8-1 aggregate win in the Europa League against minnows Wolfsberger.
Dele has been out-of-favour for Spurs this season, but kicked off a rare starting opportunity with an amazing overhead kick to fire the side ahead, which Mourinho admitted ‘everyone’ will have watched.
That was just the tipping point for the attacking midfielder this evening though, Alli registered a hat-trick of goal contributions as he also provided two assists in the 4-0 rout.
Dele has only started eight of his 17 appearances across all competitions this season, with injuries and his drop down the pecking order seeing just 113 minutes of action in the Premier League.
With Spurs looking shocking as of late, losing four of their last five top-flight encounters and winning just once against relegation-bound West Brom, Mourinho needs some serious help to help the season.
Jose Mourinho commented on the brilliant performance from Dele Alli and other returning stars that could help turnaround Tottenham’s season at a congested point… pic.twitter.com/BzvaZ33ryO
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“The goal I don’t need to speak because everyone watch it and I believe that around all the world, in all these sports TVs, people are going to watch it, no need to talk about it.”
“But for me, the globality of the performance is what matters. He played very well. In every aspect of the game he played very well.”
“Of course he’s not fresh, of course you can feel that his performance, like in the first-leg, from minute 55-60 is going always going to go down, which is normal due to the circumstances – injured, not training for a long time, coming for a couple of weeks.”
“But in this moment when we are going to play every three days, 10 matches in March, to have Dele back at this level is amazing. But I wouldn’t say Dele only.”
“I think Winks, Sissoko, just to give two more examples. To have them back to this level, we need more than ever.”
“We have a lot to play for, we have Premier League, Europa League, a final to play (Carabao Cup), we have a lot to play for, so every player back is a bless to us.”
“Gio (Lo Celso) is also coming, we have incredible numbers of matches, seven for us plus three in the national team are 10 matches in March, 10 matches believe is impossible for a football player.”
“So when it’s impossible for a football player – you need the squad, you need to use the players, you need to have players available for you.”
“We had a problem for months with Ben Davies as the only left-back, in this moment we have Ben and (Sergio) Reguilon, if we can have that in every position of course that’s what we need because we have a lot to play for.”
Dele has experienced an overall steep decline since the 2018 World Cup, a brief purple patch when Mourinho initially took over has been the only encouraging sign for the attacker for years now.
Whilst it would be naive to think that Dele gaining some confidence in the Europa League could be a sole factor to help push the side from ninth in the Premier League, it’s clear that Spurs need something different to get their season back on track, everyone will have the opportunity over the crowded period.