Alli shines even living off scraps
there. Houllier, who helped set up the Clarefontaine academy that has produced so many great French talents, believes that the FA’s investment in St George’s Park will produce dividends in five or 10 years.
But he said a spark will be needed – and he felt that spark could be Alli. The Spurs starlet had been poor in the 2-2 World Cup qualifier against Scotland on Saturday, when it looked like a game too far in a long season for both him and Marcus Rashford.
But Southgate gave Alli another chance last night as England ended their season in Paris. With France having lost unexpectedly to Sweden on Friday night, French manager Didier Deschamps was looking for a marked improvement, unleashing young guns Kylian Mbappe, Thomas Lemar and Ousmane Dembele.
For young Alli, a marked improvement was also needed with the World Cup starting a year today.
Alli, again in a floating role behind Harry Kane, needed to move between the lines much better than he had against the Scots but was up against much stronger opposition in N’Golo Kante and Paul Pogba.
The Spurs man was still able to provide moments of inspiration and that offers real hope for Southgate.
Alli started well, doing that drifting job to perfection just eight minutes in. Swapping wings with Raheem Sterling, Alli crossed beautifully to the far post to the Manchester City man, who set up the overlapping Ryan Bertrand for a cross which Kane stuck away. It was Alli’s 17th assist of the season. But France’s young raiders soon began to expose England’s weak defensive midfield with their pace and went ahead. The problems were behind Alli. He kept dropping deep, but was simply not seeing enough of the ball.
But immediately after the break Alli burst in behind the France defence, forcing Raphael Varane into the tackle. Down went Alli, off went Varane, although the foul may have been accidental, and Kane rammed in the penalty.
From scraps, Alli had twice brought success for England in Paris against a mightily useful French team brimming with frightening pace.
His lovely first touch, clever reading of the game and cool head provided a glimmer of real class for Southgate’s side.
He may not yet be Zidane but Alli looks for real. His only blot was a late booking – and England’s eventual defeat was not down to him.