Arsenal legend Ray Parlour has urged Dele Alli to regain his confidence if he wants to have a future at Tottenham. The 24-year-old midfielder started Thursday night’s Europa League match at Royal Antwerp but was hauled off at half-time by Jose Mourinho as Spurs fell to a lacklustre 1-0 defeat. He has made over 220 appearances in a Spurs shirt since joining from MK Dons five years ago, but seems to be lacking confidence as a result of his recent dip in form.
Ray Parlour said “I don’t know where he goes from here, You ask me why he’s not being picked, that’s why he’s not being picked, because he’s not performing. His confidence is low. I think every footballer’s gone through it, when you’re having a bad time, and you’ve just got to keep training, working hard and hopefully your form will turn around but at the moment he’s probably really low. And as I said before, it’s an opportunity for players to come in and prove to the manager that they can do their job and put the pressure on the first team. It sounds like he [Mourinho] knows his first team, and the players that played last night are nowhere near that. What is his best position? Is Jose going out and telling him too many instructions he’s got to do? Because usually he’s a free spirit when he plays, He goes everywhere and he drifts into places and he’s hard to pick up. He’s got to be careful because he set his bar so high as a young man when he first got his opportunity. But suddenly he’s at this crossroads in his career – ‘where am I going with it?'”
