Dele Won His Assist Battle With Harry Kane on Wednesday
Dele Alli won the passing assist competition with Harry Kane hands down against Arsenal on Wednesday, capping another quite superb performance.
As you can see from the graphic, he was 10 yards into the Arsenal half and had to think quickly before the Arsenal player made a tackle. Facing to his right he could see Son ready to make a run in behind the Arsenal defence.
Dele's pass had to be into Son's run, which would be angled towards goal and critically at the right pace. If it was played too heavy, the curl of the ball would bring the sweeper keeper into play or it would push Son too wide, depending upon whether the pass was played with curl or not.
Alli, however, played it at the perfect weight and Son didn't have to break his stride or change his angle of run. The curl of the pass was with his run thus making instant control for the receiver easier.
The area Dele had to play it into was small, pace was critical and he had no time to think about it with an Arsenal player immediately on him.
This piece of skill far outweighed the time, space, passing area and level of difficulty than the Harry Kane pass, which one rather OTT hack, has labelled world class.
The ball was cleared to Kane who had acres of space to chest the ball down, get it under control, turn and look up to see Dele Alli making a forward run and pointing to where he wanted the ball.
Still unchallenged and with plenty of time, he had an easy chip over the defence into a large expanse in the general area where Dele was running.
Kane placed curl on the ball, against the run of Alli, thus making ball control for the receiver more difficult. In fact, Dele did miss-control the ball which pushed him wider but allowed him to produce a quite superb finish.
As long as the ball was not overhit, pace and direction were less critical, Alli was free from a static defence and anywhere near his run would have allowed him to score. the actual pass was a pass you would expect most professionals to make, given the time Harry had to play the ball.
Which was the better goal?
Well, the finish of Alli makes the second goal a better goal, but the assist award has to go to Dele Alli simply because of the lack of time, less room for error and a greater degree of difficulty in executing the pass.
COYS
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