LONDON -- Dele Alli's lethal form in front of goal has led his manager Mauricio Pochettino to describe him as a "killer," who is desperate to keep scoring goals for Tottenham.
Alli has seven goals in Spurs' last four league games, including doubles against Southampton, Watford and Chelsea. Pochettino has used a 3-4-3 formation since the turn of the year and Alli has been playing as a second striker, just off frontman Harry Kane.
Spurs are expected to continue with the system for Saturday's home league match against West Brom, and Alli scored in the 1-1 draw with the Baggies at the Hawthorns in October but missed several chances, leading Pochettino to say he "needs to improve."
His seven goals have come from just seven shots on target and, speaking at his prematch news conference, Pochettino praised Alli's desire and instinct in the penalty box.
"When we used different formations, sometimes he's more in the box than Harry or Son [Heung-Min], who we often see play there. Dele Alli is a killer. He's very aggressive, he's very naughty when he runs forward," Pochettino said.
"He's desperate to get into the box, to get the ball, and score. That's an unbelievable mentality and that's because he's a very special player. He can play as an offensive midfielder but he can has the characteristics to play box-to-box -- he can run twelve-and-a-half or 13 kilometres [per game]. All those characteristics make for a special player.
"You can see how he is, how he behaves in the box -- he is very aggressive. He is not Harry Kane, he is not going to be our top scorer like Harry Kane. But for his characteristics, he has goals. He's scored a lot. He's desperate to score."
The 20-year-old reached 20 Premier League goals in fewer games than Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Paul Scholes and David Beckham, while the only midfield players to reach the milestone quicker are Matthew Le Tissier and former Spurs player Rafael van der Vaart, who both essentially played as second strikers.
"I saw that [statistic] -- and he deserves a lot of credit. All the praise he is receiving, he deserves," Pochettino said.
Alli's pursuit of goals in a more attacking role is bad news for Tottenham's £17 million summer signing Vincent Janssen, who is still yet to score from open play for the club.
Janssen, who finished as top scorer in the Eredivisie last season, was left out of the squad altogether for the 2-0 win against Chelsea and he was replaced by Alli after an hour in the FA Cup third-round win over Aston Villa, with the score goalless.
The 22-year-old deputised for Kane when the England striker missed eight weeks with an ankle injury in October and November, and Pochettino has admitted the opportunity came too soon for him.
"Maybe it was too early but it's part of the process. We expected for him maybe not to play too much. When Harry got injured, he was our main striker and played a lot. He is a young player, who came from a different country, a different league, different football. He needs to adapt his qualities to the team and a different league."
Pochettino added that Janssen was down after the Villa match and said he needed to be fitter and sharper to reach the level expected of him at Spurs.
"We will push him to improve and we will help him to get to the level that we expect. I am not concerned about him. We know that now he is not in a good period and it's true that after Aston Villa, he felt he was not at his best," said the Argentine.
"When you have that feeling, some criticism, it is always bad for a young player. But that is football. He needs to be clever and try to assimilate and to use that to be more motivated and to work and show that we were right when we signed him.
"He's still very young, he's a kid, and he's in a moment now where he needs love and the way that we can help him is to try to push him, give him extra work for him to be fitter, to be sharp and try to recover his good feeling."