England boss Gareth Southgate has hailed Dele Alli following his display in a deeper role in the friendly against Nigeria.
Southgate deployed Alli and Jesse Lingard ahead of Eric Dier and his adaption to the role delighted the Three Lions boss.
‘I thought his performance was really good today, his use of the ball, I liked his play with runners ahead of him. The position he had to play today was a little bit different from where we have used him in the past, where he was coming off the front and having to turn with the ball a bit more. It’s a position he has played a lot as a younger player, in particular, and I know he likes it.
‘The intelligence of his runs —we didn’t always find him. In fact we had to keep encouraging him to make those runs because the danger is you get disappointed at not being found and stop doing it.” Southgate said.