Liverpool vs Tottenham: Graeme Souness questions Dele Alli’s focus and says he has ‘stagnated’ as a footballer

Alli has played just twice in the Premier League so far this season

Graeme Souness has questioned Dele Alli‘s focus after suggesting the Tottenham player has “stagnated” as a footballer.

Alli scored 32 goals in his first two seasons at Spurs but has struggled with form and fitness since.

Souness wonders what the player himself would point to as the reason for his stagnation.

“Two years ago, I thought Dele Alli was going to be a superstar,” Souness wrote in the Sunday Times.

“A modern-day goalscoring midfielder from the same mould as Terry McDermott, my partner at Liverpool, or, more recently, Frank Lampard at Chelsea. Somebody who could be relied upon to get well into double figures in terms of goals every season for their club.

“Instead he’s stagnated. Why? Will he point to the hamstring injuries he’s had? Is he blaming the training at Tottenham or his team-mates? He has to look at himself first, in the mirror in the morning when he’s shaving, and ask: ‘Why have I not progressed?’”

Alli has played just twice so far in the Premier League this season after struggling with a hamstring injury.

His influence has waned considerably since breaking into the Tottenham side after arriving at the club from MK Dons in 2015, perhaps suffering from a lack of clarity over his role as Son Heung-min and Lucas Moura emerged.

Souness thinks Alli should look to what teammate Harry Kane has done as a guide for how to improve his game, and questioned the 23-year-old’s focus.

“He needs to ask why Harry Kane has kicked on and handled all the peripheral stuff that comes with being a top player, and he hasn’t.

“Can he honestly say he’s been fully focused on his football or has he forgotten what made him kick a ball in the first place?

“It should still be the priority. Why would you allow your eye to be taken off the ball? When you were a little boy you loved doing it, so get back to the basics of being in love with the game again.”

Alli scored his first goal of the season against Watford last weekend, and followed it up with a second successive start against Red Star Belgrade in midweek.

Tottenham visit Anfield on Sunday to face league leaders Liverpool, and are already 13 points in arrears to the title favourites.