Mourinho urges Alli to take a leaf out of Ndombele's book

Jose Mourinho believes Dele Alli could take a few pointers from Tanguy Ndombele on how to resurrect his Tottenham career.

Doubts over Alli’s future grow as the English transfer deadline on October 5 comes ever closer. He’s currently out of favor under Mourinho, with the Tottenham boss using him just twice this season to date.

The 24-year-old, who has failed to make the matchday squad in two of the club’s last three games, may need to seek an exit. Especially if he hopes to win a spot in the England team for next summer’s European championship.

But while one Spurs midfielder struggles, another begins to win favour with Mourinho in Tanguy Ndombele.

The former Lyon star appears to have turned a corner after starting the last two games, including Spurs’ 3-1 win over Shkendija in a Europa League qualifier on Thursday.

Ndombele’s performance in Macedonia was easily one of his best under Mourinho. The Frenchman responded well to all his coach’s changes during the match, while delivering some flawless passes.

“I’m very happy [with Ndombele],” said Mourinho as quoted on Goal.

“I say all the time, when a player improves it’s a player’s responsibility, it’s the player’s credit. It’s not the coach who makes the miracle. The player that does that by himself, to understand what he has to understand and go in the right direction that he has to go. Tanguy, step by step, is doing very well.

“I didn’t talk to Tanguy. I just think that he felt the direction which it was going was not the right one and it’s something that players with me, they feel all of the time that I don’t give positions for free.

“The players have to fight, they have to perform, I would never give him a place in the team because he was an expensive buy or because he’s an important player. He has to do that by himself, probably with the help of his colleagues, with the help of his teammates, he went in a good direction.”

Alli, meanwhile, started and played for an hour in Spurs’ 3-1 win over Shkendija. His performance, however, was far from convincing. While the midfielder covered a fair bit of ground in the opening 45 minutes, he blew a brilliant chance to score from close range early on.

A sluggish start to the second-half prompted Mourinho to replace him with Harry Kane.

Asked if Ndombele’s response is what he’ll like to see from Alli and other out of favor stars, Mourinho replied: “Yes, that’s what I want.

“I don’t want players to moan, I don’t want players to feel frustrated, I don’t want players to feel that I have something against them when I don’t pick them up.

“I want players to fight for the minutes that they want to be on the pitch and when you play for Tottenham, you have to understand that Tottenham wants to be better and better and the rewards are going to be better and better and the players cannot have a comfortable position on the pitch.”