Firmino vs Dele Alli: Who Should Win The Player Of The Month?
The Premier League player of the month for January 2016 is out and amongst the players nominated for the monthly award are Roberto Firmino and Dele Alli of Tottenham. Both players have done exceptionally well in this particular month, especially Firmino who had a slow start to his Liverpool career but is slowly blossoming into the Bundesliga player who was taking the league by storm for Hoffenheim.
Dele Alli though can’t seem to do much wrong as he has fired Tottenham up to third this season and is actually keeping more seasoned professionals out of the first team with his incredible and mature performances, he is still 19-years-old at the moment.
With both players shining brightly for their clubs in January it might be a tough choice to make but we compare just how well these two players have played in the last month and judge who deserves the award more.
A new kid on the block vs. a new kid in the country
Roberto Firmino’s transition from the Bundesliga to the Premier League was not an easy one. He looked extremely out of place early on when he was used by Brendan Rodgers but ever since Jurgen Klopp started playing without a striker; Firmino has grown leaps and bounds.
In the month of January, Firmino scored four goals and took his overall tally to five for the season. He scored a brace against Arsenal and Norwich and the quality of the goals in both games spoke about his great shooting ability.
Dele Alli might not have scored as many goals as Firmino did but he certainly got a goal of the season contender in the month. The English midfielder scored twice in the month but he just doesn’t score goals for the team, he does a lot more.
Alli plays an important role by linking with the attack and has managed to put in six key passes in the four Premier League games during the month of January. Firmino though has done even better; the Brazilian has provided 10 key passes in these four games for Liverpool and has the same number of successful passes as Dele Alli, 130 in the four games played.
Both players are known to track back and defend well and this is one stat which Firmino just shades from the younger Dele Alli. The Brazilian has won 25 duels in the month compared to Alli’s 24. Stats all suggest that Firmino should be the one who wins the award but Dele Alli is a more consistent performer while Firmino does go missing in games.
This might be a tough one to call but just for his consistency and his overall performances in the season, the award could go to Dele Alli but even if it does go to Firmino, the stats back that decision up, even if the team performance hasn’t been all that great this season.