Soccer

Mauricio Pochettino admits Dele Alli has a lot to learn

Petulant kick during hard-fought draw in Italy could have led to red card

Tottenham’s Dele Alli is shown a yellow card by the referee during the Europa League game against Fioentina at Artemio Franchi Stadium. Photograph: Matthew Childs/Action Images via Reuters/Livepic
Tottenham’s Dele Alli is shown a yellow card by the referee during the Europa League game against Fioentina at Artemio Franchi Stadium. Photograph: Matthew Childs/Action Images via Reuters/Livepic
Fri Feb 19 2016 - 01:34

Mauricio Pochettino admits Dele Alli still has a lot to learn after the England international appeared to kick out at an opponent during Tottenham's Europa League draw at Fiorentina.

The 19-year-old was cautioned on the half-hour mark of the 1-1 last 32 first leg stalemate at the Stadio Artemio Franchi after Nenad Tomovic reacted angrily following a foul from Alli.

Replays appeared to show the Spurs man made no effort to jump clear of the defender and instead caught him with a boot.

The home players were further incensed when Tottenham were awarded a soft penalty shortly afterwards as Ben Davies went down under minimal contact from Tomovic, with Nacer Chadli stroking home the penalty.

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Fiorentina earned a draw courtesy of a deflected second-half strike from Federico Bernardeschi and the hosts actually finished the game strongly.

Controversy

Alli kept his place in the Spurs team despite Pochettino making six changes from Sunday’s 2-1 win at Manchester City and, although he was once again the pick of the bunch, it is not the first time the former MK Dons man has courted controversy.

Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew accused Alli of stamping on Yohan Cabaye in Tottenham’s 3-1 win over the Eagles in January.

And now Pochettino has said he will talk to Alli about that side of his game.

“We need to look at the video and try to teach him,” he said. “He is a young player and he has a lot to learn about elite football. It is his first season in the Premier League at Tottenham.

“He came from League One, he needs to learn a lot, still learn. But I didn’t see (the incident). Some people say ‘yes’, say ‘no’, so I don’t know.”

Pochettino had insisted leading into the contest that he was still taking the Europa League seriously despite now being one of the favourites to claim the Premier League crown.

He may have changed over half of his side for the trip to Florence, but he maintains that is a necessity if Spurs are to challenge on three fronts – with an FA Cup fifth-round tie at home to Palace next up on Sunday.

“It is important to play with the squad,” he said. “We have a strong squad to try to fight for every competition, we need to use all of the squad. I am happy with all of the players.

“Six changes from the City game and I’m happy, it is not important to talk about using the squad. It is important how we compete, we have big motivation.”

Pochettino turned to star striker Harry Kane with a little more than 20 minutes remaining. However, the England international could not add to his 19 goals this season, with Fiorentina defender Gonzalo Rodriguez coming closest to producing a winner ahead of the return meeting next week.