Lothar Matthaus admits Dele Alli reminds him of himself back in 1980… when Germany won Euros
German legend heaps praise on young Tottenham star and believes he has all the attributes to shine at Euro 2016
I know what Dele Alli will be feeling this morning.
Why? Because I was in his boots, 19 years of age, in 1980. I hadn’t even made my debut for Germany before that tournament kicked off in Italy.
Only a year before those finals I was playing in the fourth division in Germany, then I moved to Monchengladbach.
But that’s where the similarities end. I was playing for a village team. And while Dele has only been in the Premier League with Tottenham for a year, he has been a professional, in his thinking, for far longer.
Nobody thought I’d be in the squad and, even when I was picked, they didn’t think I’d be involved.
I’d actually already booked my holidays because I didn’t think there was any chance of being selected, so I had to cancel them. Mind you I was happy to do that!
But it has been clear for a few months that Alli will probably be in the team for England when they kick-off their Euro 2016 campaign against Russia tomorrow.
I watched him in that game against Germany in Berlin and I could see, straight away, he is a great player.
He seems instinctively to get into the right position, knows what he has to do with the ball, when and where to give it, so I’m sure he will not be nervous.
If you can do what he has done, play so well in the Premier League, coping with the pressure of big games against Arsenal, City and United, you can take that to the national team as well.
The only question over him is his temperament.
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He missed the last three games of the season because of suspension and he cannot afford to make a mistake like that in the Euros.
But he knows that and I think he is learning. I watched the friendlies with Turkey and Portugal and he didn’t react when they tried to rile him. That was a good sign.
These days the quality and the mentality of the players is better.
But what makes the difference is the approach they have, if they can make sure they do not come into tournaments tired in their heads.
For a long time I’ve felt the problem for England at tournaments was that — they had a good team but they weren’t ready, physically or psychologically, after a long season with so many games played at high intensity, to take on the very best.
But maybe it will be different this time. England are the youngest squad in the tournament and they should be able to play at a higher speed, even if the games are coming every three or four days, to show it at the highest level.
When I saw England against Germany in Berlin I thought, ‘This team is good — but you just have to let them play’. They need to play with that intensity and approach in every game.
For players like Harry Kane, Alli and Eric Dier, in their first tournament, Jamie Vardy too, they have to embrace the challenge and not worry about pressure.
I remember Franz Beckenbauer when he was our manager in 1990.
He would do the tactical talk but he’d always make the last message the big one ‘Go and enjoy yourselves — have fun’.
It was always the last thing he said. He was telling us he trusted us and believed in us, that he didn’t doubt us and knew what we could do.
It needs to be the same with Roy Hodgson in this tournament. They can do it, they do every week, so why not now?
Of course, to do that, England, like every other team, have to think what is the best thing to do, sometimes to stop their opponents.
You’re not going to start the same 11 every match, you must be able to change.
Teams have to work out the best option for every game, focus on the opposition and see where you can cause them problems they might not expect. It’s about strategy.
After a game everyone knows what happened, what went wrong, where the defence wasn’t good enough, or a team defended too much and were not able to break out and attack.
But I want to show where the problems could be BEFORE the game, to let you know what to look out for.
I will tell you how a team should play, how they can surprise the other team, whether they should think about three, four or five at the back, with two strikers, wingers, with strong players or technical ones.
To give my experience and maybe make the right system before a match — then we will see what happens!