Football news - Tottenham midfielder Dele Alli refuses to blame Jose Mourinho for lack of appearances
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ByEurosport
Updated 05/07/2021 at 13:53 GMT
Dele Alli barely featured under Jose Mourinho at Tottenham last season but he insists he had no issues working with the 58-year-old and says he needs to improve in order to get back to playing regularly for Spurs. Alli played just 233 minutes in total across 32 league matches under the Portuguese manager.
Dele Alli
Image credit: Getty Images
Dele Alli does not blame Jose Mourinho for enduring the worst season of his professional career.
The 25-year-old fell out of favour under Mourinho at Tottenham last season, playing just 233 minutes in total across 32 league matches under the Portuguese before featuring more regularly for the final games of the season when Ryan Mason took over as interim boss in April.
Alli was a regular for England until the 2018 World Cup, but was never realistically in the running to be at Euro 2020 after a couple of underwhelming seasons at the north London club.
Alli blames himself and not Mourinho for his lack of game-time and has vowed to improve heading into the new campaign.
“The only person I blame is myself," he told Goal.
"I should be performing at a level where it is difficult to not put me in the team or not play me. I don’t blame anyone but myself.
Working with Mourinho was a great experience and one I learned a lot from.
Tottenham hired former Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo as their new manager last week and Alli says he hopes to have his best season as a professional under him.
“He [Nuno] has done a great job at Wolves," he said.
"I am looking forward to speaking to him and working with him. He is a great manager and it is exciting times. I want to make this year one of the best I have had. A lot of people have said I need to find the form I was in a few years ago.
"For me, I don’t even want to get to that, I want to go past that and reach my full potential to be the best player I can be. It has been a tough few years but I have been working hard and analysing what I need to do to get better.
"I have been training a lot on most days of my holiday. I didn’t feel I needed much rest, so it is just training the whole way through. Everyone is looking for that extra few per cent, so you have to keep up. I am feeling good and the best I have felt in a long time."
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