Stephen Warnock has questioned why Frank Lampard signed Dele Alli in the first place after the Everton boss kept him on the bench during Sunday’s defeat at West Ham.
Deemed as one of the most talented midfield players in Europe just four years ago, Alli has endured a dramatic fall from grace which has seen him become little more than an afterthought for both club and country. Having failed to impress Jose Mourinho, Nuno Espírito Santo and Antonio Conte at Tottenham, the 25-year-old was allowed to leave the club in January.
He subsequently joined Everton, hours after Frank Lampard’s appointment with the hope that linking up with the Chelsea legend could revitalise his stalling career. But Alli has yet to start a single game for the relegation-threatened Toffees and has made little to no positive impact on Merseyside.
Against the Hammers, Donny van de Beek picked up an injury in the warm-up, appearing to open the door for Alli to come in, only for Lampard to play Mason Holgate out of position. Sky Sports pundit Warnock blasted that decision and asked why he signed the player if he had no intention of using him.
“I look at the team yesterday and Van de Beek goes out the team and he puts Holgate into midfield and I’m thinking: ‘Why did you buy Dele Alli?’. What is Dele Alli doing at that football club now? What is Dele Alli thinking stood on the sidelines? What must he be doing in training to not get in that team?
“Whether it’s attitude, whether it’s fitness, whether it’s confidence…as an Everton fan I’d be stood there thinking: ‘Why are you playing Holgate in midfield? He’s a centre back or a right back, not a central midfielder playing in the Premier League. This is bizarre for me.”
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Lampard has previously defended Alli’s hunger and appetite for the challenge at Goodison Park and attributed his slow start due to a lack of match fitness. “He has been eligible to play seven league games. I always believed it would take some time.," he explained before the defeat to West Ham. "We are in a situation now where every game we go into, my selection thought is this has to be the best team possible to win this game. Dele has to train and show he is in that thinking, and every time he comes on he has to show he is worthy of starting a game.”
Lampard clearly determined he hadn’t done enough in the build-up to their visit to West Ham to warrant a start, or earn any playing time whatsoever. And during Sky Sports’ coverage of the 2-1 loss at the London Stadium, Graeme Souness urged Alli to grab his chance at Everton or else risk his future as a Premier League player.
“Dele Alli is a mystery to me. When he first broke into the team (at Spurs) I was thinking ‘he’s destined to be a top player’,” Souness told Sky Sports.
“He had a couple of years where he was good, getting goals, working his socks off for the team. But it’s just all evaporated. Lots of serious managers have looked at him and made their mind up on him.
“For me, if I was advising him, I’d be saying ‘you’re now in the last chance saloon’. If it doesn’t work out for him at Everton, where does he go after that? It’s certainly not a big club.
“Everton are a big club, he should grab it with both hands. Whatever he’s doing, and only he can answer it, it’s one of two things. He’s had his eye taken off the ball for whatever reasons, [or] he’s lost interest in football, at his age, really?”
