FPL Dilemma – Alli vs Eriksen – Fantasy Football Tips

In this article we will compare two of Tottenham’s attacking midfielders Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen. Both of them have been playing in the Premier League for at least 2 seasons and both adapted very well. On Fantasy Premier League, the two players both share a 9.5m price tag which classes them as premium midfielders, creating quite the FPL Dilemma.

Without further ado, lets consider and review this FPL Dilemma…

Dele Alli

Alli started his still short career at MK Dons when he was just 15 years old. The now 21 year old played 7 games in his first season in professional football, scoring once in a 6-1 win against Cambridge. In the 2013/14 season the Englishman secured a starting spot in Karl Robinson’s line up, playing 37 games in all competitions scoring 7 goals for the Dons.

In the next season Alli was utilised in a more attacking role for MK Dons and took League one by storm. He bagged himself 16 goals from 44 matches, which included a hattrick against Crewe in September. In the January transfer window that year, Alli caught Mauricio Pochettino’s eyes and the Argentinian purchased the youngster for £5 million which, looking back, must be one of the bargains of the century.

Spurs sent Alli back on loan for the rest of the season which lead Alli to making the 16 goals he notched up that season. After returning from Mk Dons, Alli was immediately chucked into the deep end and made his first appearance in the Premier League, as a substitute at Old Trafford. After racking up just 10 games, Alli was called up to the England senior squad and gained his first two caps against Lithuania and Slovakia. Throughout the season Alli scored 10 and assisted 12 in his 33 Premier League appearances.

Last season Alli was instrumental in Spurs’ title hopes, featuring in all but 1 of the games in the league. He notched an impressive 18 goals and 11 assists which resulted in the midfielder scoring 225 points on FPL, making him the second highest point scorer in the whole game!

Christian Eriksen

Eriksen is one of many to have been produced from Ajax’s illustrious youth set up. Beforehand he had spent his early youth career at Danish clubs; Middlefart and Odense Boldklub. In late 2008 Eriksen had signed a two and a half year deal with the Dutch outfit Ajax from OB. The transfer fee received by OB was estimated at €1 million. He worked his way through the youth teams, and was promoted to the first team squad in January 2010. Within the month, he made his first team debut in the Eredivisie against NAC Breda.

He made in total 122 appearances for Ajax in 3 years, the majority of which was when Christian was still a teenager. In that time he scored an impressive 27 goals and won 3 consecutive titles. In the 2013/14 season, Eriksen featured in Ajax’s first 4 Eredivisie matches scoring twice, which was then followed by Tottenham having a bid accepted for the Dane for a fee believed to be around £12.5 million.

He ended the season with Spurs scoring 7 and setting up 9 goals after a slow start adapting to the Premier League. The following season saw Eriksen bag 10 goals but just 4 assists in a disappointing season for the midfielder. However this was swiftly forgotten as he registered 6 goals and a magnificent 16 assists in Tottenham’s agonising title race in 2015/16.

Last season, Eriksen excelled himself once again in yet another season where Tottenham would come 2nd in the Premier League. The 25 year old scored 8 and assisted 20 goals which lead to him having 218 FPL points to his name and most importantly, was in the Fantasy Premier League Dream Team alongside Alli.

The Verdict

Both of these attacking midfielders are very good options for FPL. They are both proven in the Premier League and had just 7 points to split them last season. So what is there to split them? Alli does have more of an Ariel threat being 6ft 2 and Eriksen being just 5ft 7, but the Danish magician is normally the one setting up chances for the likes of Alderwiereld, Vertonghen and Alli.

Eriksen can also score from direct free kicks and has scored 5 for Spurs in his time in the Premier League. Both of them can take a decent long shot but Eriksen seems to be technically better on the ball and has the ability to create something from nothing.

Overall I believe Eriksen would be the better option from this FPL Dilemma as he has more potential when it comes to Fantasy Premier League. Despite playing more minutes last season than Alli and coming out of it with less points, Eriksen will be better than ever next season as he’s improving every season and with Spurs playing at Wembley this may suit his game better.

Written by a Harry Clark (@Harryclark67)

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