With the “big hitters” all seemingly coming into form at the same time, there has been plenty discussion during the week regarding how many, and which of these players you should strive to have in your squad.
There may be some debate as to exactly who the big hitters are, but most would agree that currently Mohamed Salah (£13.0), Harry Kane (£12.6), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£11.5), Raheem Sterling (£11.6), and Eden Hazard (£10.9) are in a class of their own (with Sergio Agüero (£11.2) waiting on the sidelines to be included when fit again). You can only captain one a week though and they all come at a premium price tag, so having too many seriously hampers the rest of the squad, especially in rotation heavy December.
“Cover”
I don’t really like the term cover in fantasy football terms. I often see it in the context of statements like “I’m not sure I can go without Man City cover” either because a team have great fixtures, form, or both. Just any Manchester City player doesn’t quite do the job though, you can’t realistically expect Bernardo Silva (£7.5) to “cover” Raheem Sterling’s points or even Sadio Mané (£9.7) covering Mo Salah. In general, FPL tend to get the pricing structure down quite well even though a couple of players always manage to slip through the cracks (Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez in Leicester’s title winning season springs to mind, or even Harry Kane in his breakthrough season).
I think every player has to be considered (mostly) in isolation for their own potential though, not just who they line up next to. Sure, having a player like Salah to pass the ball to (or get it from) obviously helps your chances of scoring points, but if you are unable or unwilling to pass the ball at the right time, then assists are still going to be hard to come by. I’m not having a go at Sadio Mané (no, really) but just 2 assists on the season so far with all that playing time for such a talented Liverpool attack, I mean come on?
Sometimes though, we get a team that has both good fixtures and are starting to pick up some form (Tottenham and West Ham for instance), coupled with also having multiple decent FPL-options. With a limited budget and the need for building a balanced squad for rotation, getting Kane in isn’t always that straightforward. Unlike many other teams, going with Christian Eriksen (£9.3), Dele Alli (£8.9) or Heung-Min Son (£8.5) has always been decent complements to the prolific Harry Kane, sometimes in a double/treble up and sometimes just dipping your toes in the north London waters with the one midfield asset.
Why Alli?
But enough background, let’s get down to brass tacks. As the title says, I genuinely believe there is a case to be made for the inclusion of Dele Alli in our squads. Coming in at £8.9 with an ownership of just 3.6% (in comparison to Harry Kane at almost ten times the ownership) he is very much in the “differential” category. This isn’t just your average everyday Gerard Deulofeu/Willian-styled differential though, Dele Alli has a history of scoring bucket-loads of points.
His best tally came two seasons ago with 18 goals, 11 assists and 17 bonus points clocking up to a solid 225-point season. Last year when he “struggled”, he still scored 9 goals, 13 assists and 12 bonus, gathering 175 points in the process. This year he’s missed 5 games through injury and played 15 minutes or less on three other occasions, which can go some way to account for his meagre returns of 3 goals, 2 assists so far.
He has also been tasked with playing a lot deeper at times which has hindered his ability to get in the box and finish off chances. Last game was different though. Yes, Kane was on the bench which did change the dynamic of the team quite a bit and this has to be taken into account… Stats-wise he didn’t exactly pull up trees in the goal attempts department as his only attempt in the form of a header went in, but penalty area touches and dribble attempts were way up (between three and four times as much) compared to his average over the season and in my humble opinion, I think he is coming into form. Although no one is nailed in the coming weeks he should also be fit enough to play most minutes. I think that there still is a potent goalscorer hiding in the young Alli, and that part is just dying to get out and go absolutely ballistic over the coming weeks!
Caveats
To be fair the stats so far aren’t backing me up on this. Playing time, the price, Heung-Min Son and a potentially deeper role would also be reasonable arguments against Alli. I think his injury does have a lot to do with him not performing to our expectations so far though, and I believe a lot will change over the coming weeks as he gets back up to speed. If choosing between him and Son, I can see the logic in going with the electric South Korean who has so far been playing further up top, but this doesn’t mean that Alli can’t also get good returns and he “should” be able to get more minutes than Son.
Conclusion
As a very relevant side note, I think Heung-Min Son looks a very good option but I feel like there really is no need to write an article about him for that point to be made, Dele Alli is creeping more under the radar and he also has the makings of a great option. Son is heading off sometime in January to the Asian Cup and Spurs fixtures look good all the way through February, so there is going to be ample opportunity for Dele Alli to start banging in the goals like there is no tomorrow, regardless of Son.
Personally, I’m looking at potentially (depending on other fires to put out) getting Alli in place of Leroy Sané (£9.5) who surely has to be rested if not this week, then next week by Pep Guardiola. Even with Mendy out I just don’t see Sané starting all of the next games and he does have a tendency to get a short cameo, which is rarely particularly great. Full disclosure though: I already have Son in my squad and Aubameyang instead of Kane, so I’m looking at it from the point of a Spurs double up. In a head to head between Alli and Son it gets a bit more tricky but in my opinion, both can be great options the coming weeks.
So are you going with one, two or no Spurs mids?
Is Kane the only asset that interests you, or are you steering clear entirely from Tottenham for now?
Meltens
5 years, 9 months ago
Thanks for submitting, and really nicely edited/formatted!
I hadn't considered Alli if I'm totally honest - I'm going to take a look now though. I do need a David Silva replacement!