The curious case of Dele

I’m focusing on Dele here, but there is a wider conversation to be had on the use of young players so early on in their careers, and how that might affect their longevity in the game. But back to Dele; nobody but him and the people around him will know why there’s been a sudden drop off in terms of consistency or even if it is sudden, and the issue has been there all along and it’s only just come to fruition: we should never judge someone’s character and mentality if we don’t know them, it’s a dangerous game to put the blame on the player like I heard Nigel Reo-Coker do on The Football Daily podcast. I often hear the phrase “Football is a simple game” when In reality, It’s the complete opposite — there’s so many variables and uncontrollable facets within the game to even associate the word simple to it. It’s cliché, but footballers are human and sometimes a once great player will suddenly drop like a stone, and people will act like it’s come from nowhere, when it’s been staring in the face for a while. Dele is a curious case, because as he was coming through MK Dons and getting the ears of Premier League clubs perked up, he was playing in a role (deep midfielder) that would be completely different to what made him so effective in the top flight of English football.

In my view, there’s a number of factors involved here; exhaustion, poor utilisation from certain managers, and a sketchy injury record even before he joined Spurs. For now, I’ll focus on the utilisation. As I’ve already mentioned, at MK Dons — Dele was used as a deeper midfielder because of his physical attributes and ability to score from range. By the age of 17, Dele had already played just under 6,000 minutes of first team football, and already had picked up torn ligaments and an ankle injury which would keep him out of action for a total of 14 games — which isn’t ideal for a young, tall, physical player who’s still growing into his body at 17. Fast forward to the 15/16 season, under the impressive up and coming Mauricio Pochettino, Spurs were moving in the right direction, and Dele was a key player in that evolvement; albeit it wasn’t meant to happen as quickly as it did. I remember the discussion on Sky Sports News that the idea surrounding his move would be a slow burner, that he might break into the team, or even have a loan away for a season. But that wasn’t the case, Dele almost immediately became a key part for Pochettino. Listening back to various podcasts to help what I’m writing and with a lil help from Wyscout — Dele for the first 18 months of his time at Spurs divided opinion in the sense he scored goals, but didn’t offer much outside of that, and would often go missing in games, whilst being a problem in possession. Pochettino moulded Dele in to high pressing, ball winning advanced midfielder that would often make runs beyond Kane to score goals — his ability to find space in and around the box is what separated him from the rest, and even got Gary Neville comparing Dele to Frank Lampard. The goal that always sticks out to me is the away goal at Everton, when a long ball is played over the top and Dele chests it and finishes into the bottom corner.

The downfall of Dele coincided with more injury problems, Spurs losing key players and having problems in midfield because of those reasons — Dele’s role changed in the team. Before he was an advanced midfielder operating almost exclusively in the final third, his heat map suggests he favoured receiving and picking up the ball on the left hand side; but now he’s being used as a deeper midfielder, which was what he was first used as at MK Dons — however, the obvious step up, and the complete change of role isn’t helpful, especially in a time where Spurs were faltering; for a young player that can be detrimental for their development; especially as there was a few role changes throughout the season; none of which were his best. Picking up the ball and driving into the box in the final third, is a lot different to picking up the ball in the defensive third and driving through the middle. As Dele was one of Spurs’ most consistent goal scorers and creative outlets, dropping him deeper just made everything worse for Spurs as there was no one else to run beyond Kane and find those pockets of space between the penalty box and six yard box. Obviously his quality has dropped as well, so you can’t blame the entirety of his drop off on circumstance; but there’s enough there to question how it happened and why it happened. You then add the mental side of the game in terms of pressure to it, being a young English player who’s club, to an extent country relies on, very few players maintain the level from a physical and mental standpoint; and if they do, they alter their game.

So you’ve got injury problems from 17 years old, poor utilisation and an over reliance on a young player, which possibly exhausts them both mentally and physically, you’ve got a player who maybe 25 in age, but is more 32 in football years. By the age of 24, Dele had 14 injuries, 5 of which were hamstring, as well as big strains and torn ligaments. He also played the equivalent of 325 90s by the age of 24, which is more than 32 year old Tom Cleverley. Also, side note, someone’s peak isn’t linear, you can be in your peak at 19 or even 31, just maybe Dele’s peak lasted from a great run of 16-23, which is a strong 7 year run — most players rarely do that. Everton fans won’t like it, but that’s the player you’ve got now, and something the buying club probably should have looked into. There’s a player in there for sure, just have to find a way to use him effectively, and not use him as a central midfielder. To conclude, Dele was great, he can still be good, but let’s not label footballers as things when we don’t actually know the reasons.