DELE MORE DEADLY WHEN HE’S UPRIGHT

FOOTBALL, according to Mauricio Pochettino, is about trying to trick your opponent. Except it’s not. Beating your opponent, that’s the aim.

Beat him with skill, beat him with strength and athleticism, beat him with intelligence, beat him by being tactically superior.

There are many ways to win a football match, and Tottenham’s ways are some of the best. But trick him? That is a leap of logic that few coaches will countenance.

Manchester City haven’t tricked their way to the top of the table, and West Brom are not bottom because they need to be trickier. City are the best, West Brom must get better.

At football. Tricks do not enter into it. Pochettino was making the language turn somersaults in defence of his player Dele Alli, who is very gifted but fast establishing a reputation as the biggest cheat in the Premier League.

David Pleat, another Tottenham man, also spoke in his defence on these pages on Thursday saying Alli must keep driving into the box. Nobody is arguing that he shouldn’t.

What is being said is that he should stop throwing himself to the ground when he gets there. Pleat cited Frank Lampard and John Wark as players with similar attacking attributes — but neither of them had reputations for diving. They wanted to stay upright, they wanted to score.

Lampard’s game was about goals, not tricks, and Alli’s should be, too. He averaged a goal every 2.05 games in the Premier League last season — when he did not receive a booking for diving — and one in five this, when he has been cautioned twice.

Instead of indulging his chicanery maybe these facts should be pointed out. Alli is better on his feet than turning tricks.