Sacked Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino will be left annoyed by the immediate improvement in Dele Alli’s form following the arrival of Jose Mourinho according to former Leeds striker Noel Whelan.
Alli’s performances have come under intense scrutiny over the past two years as he failed to build on the spectacular displays he showcased in his first two seasons at the club.
The 23-year-old managed 10 Premier League goals in his first campaign after joining from MK Dons which he followed up with 18 a year later.
His tally of nine during the 2017/18 season was a notable drop from the year before, with five last time out making his worst season in five years.
Whelan has now pointed out a notable change in Alli’s attitude during the 3-2 and 4-2 victories over West Ham and Olympiakos respectively, and predicted that Pochettino will have been left angry.
“You can imagine Poch is fuming,” Whelan told Football Insider.
“Alli looked disinterested and average for over a year. Mourinho comes in and suddenly he looks a different player.
“He’ll be thinking, ‘what’s going on, why didn’t he play like that for me?’.”
Whelan, a former England youth international, went on to reason why Alli might have been able to show glimpses of his talent during Spurs’ last two fixtures, and why it might have been down to the manager.
He added: “The thing is, good players bounce back from blips.
“Dele Alli has had a difficult time in his career and his performances have been ropey for a long time.
“When players as good as him have a dip in form, it is noticeable. He was integral to the wins and looks hungry and confident again.
“Sometimes a change of manager actually does breathe new life into top players.”
Alli scored just before half-time on Wednesday to reduced Olympiakos’ lead to a single goal after Spurs slipped 2-0 behind, but he has since revealed that Mourinho remained far from happy at the break.
He said: “We did not start nowhere near good enough and we said at half-time we could not perform any worse.
“I got the goal, which was a bit lucky, but we won.”