Dele Alli Is At His Best When He Is Naughty – Mauricio Pochettino

Spurs midfielder, Dele Alli will find his form when he unleashes the “devil” within himself, according to his coach, Mauricio Pochettino.

Poch believes the English player is at his best when he is being a bit naughty.

The Tottenham boss recently backed Dele Alli after a spell of poor form by saying he is sure that he will get back to his best eventually.

His words, “We know very well that Dele is going to be back,”

“His mentality is good. After a tough period, always you need time to recover the feelings and performance. As long as you are consistent and working hard, you are going to arrive again because the quality is there.

“It’s still there inside of him. We spoke with him about improving different areas. But for sure the devil is going to appear again. I don’t know when. But for sure it will.

“If you go back, we all criticised him. But remember I said I said I liked this Dele Alli. Because sometimes players being a bit naughty makes that difference.”

“Dele is capable again of performing in the way the he expects and his family expects, us, the club,”

“When you show the qualities he showed when he was a 20-year-old and a 21-year-old, when you drop it is normal that people are going to criticise because they find it difficult to understand why you drop in terms of assists or goals in your game.

“But in every single talented young player, at some point the level drops. Some players need more or less time again to be in the best form.

“I think every coach must support, back your player and help your player because when Dele was scoring goals it was easy to embrace him but now when he is maybe not at his best, it is the most difficult to embrace him and say I trust in you and you are going to have time to be again the best. It is easy now to criticise him.”