Dele Alli admits he was forced to change his style of play to produce his stunning season for Tottenham after opposing defenders gained the upper hand over him.

The England international finished the campaign with 22 goals for Spurs in all competitions — yet before the 2-1 win over Burnley on December 18 he had found the target only four times in 21 matches.

Alli has cemented his status as the most exciting young player in the English game after building on his impressive displays during his debut season at Tottenham. But the 21-year-old revealed he had to make adjustments to his game following that slow start.

He said: “I’ve had to think a lot more about my movement. Maybe in my first season, players weren’t used to me running into the box from midfield, so they weren’t expecting it. This season, they got a little bit more used to it.

“So I’ve had to time my runs a little bit better, and I’ve had to be a bit sharper with the way I move off defenders. I’ve had to try to judge the flight of the ball a little bit better.

“At the start of the season I struggled a bit, perhaps because I didn’t expect players to be so used to me, so I had to change my game. I started playing a bit higher up the pitch and scoring a few more goals.

“There are still things I need to work on to make sure next season is even better. I want to be more clinical than I was this season. I want to up my numbers again.”

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Manager Mauricio Pochettino is keen to improve Tottenham’s squad after a patchy summer transfer window last year.

While Victor Wanyama was, at £9million from Southampton, one of the signings of the season, his impact was not matched by Moussa Sissoko, Georges-Kevin Nkoudou or Vincent Janssen.

Spurs are likely to lose at least one first-team player, with Kyle Walker aware he can double his £70,000-a-week salary if he joins Manchester City. Pochettino is seeking at least one more full-back, a centre-back, an attacking midfielder and a forward.

Yet Alli believes Tottenham do not need to be too active in the market. He argued: “With the players we’ve got here, we don’t need to go out and spend loads of money. There is a good bunch of players here. Everyone is determined, everyone works hard and there is a lot of quality in the team.

“It is important we stick together, keep working hard and keep improving. We have to take our form from the end of this season into next season, and start even stronger. Then, if we can finish as well as we did this season, we should be OK.”