Over time, England has produced a wealth of talent in the central midfield position, including Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, and — more recently — Jude Bellingham.
With Bellinghams recent success, many teams are seeking a midfielder who can combine the roles of a central midfielder and an attacking midfielder.
This player can dominate the midfield and contribute to the teams success in the final third.
Watching the Belgian Pro League and Westerlo, there is a young British player who fits that mould and is having a very decent season abroad: Alfie Devine.
Devine was part of the Liverpool academy, but the Reds decided to release him at the age of 11 when he joined Wigan Athletic.
His time at Wigan was a success, as he played with the U23s at age 15 and developed into a player who was part of the English youth national teams.
When Wigan went into administration in 2020, Tottenham Hotspur quickly acquired the talented midfielder, and his career did not halt thereafter.
Making his Spurs debut in 2021 at age 17 and winning the 2022 U19 Euros with the English team, Devine flourished in a more advanced position.
He became famous for an altercation that saw Danny Drinkwater sent off in a Premier League u23 game.
However, life is not a fairy tale; Devine’s career did not take off at age 17.
He made his breakthrough at age 19 last season, being loaned out into League One for the first half of the season and into the championship for the latter half.
KVC Westerlo decided to sign Devine this season after his impressive pre-season at Spurs.
Since then, he has been a regular for the Belgian club.
In this scouting report and player analysis, we will examine what makes Alfie Devine so effective, identify his strengths, and pinpoint areas where the 20-year-old needs to improve to take the next step at Spurs under Ange Postecoglou.
Alfie Devine Stats 2024/25
The data for Devine this season in Belgium does not seem too great at first glance.
We need to keep in mind here that Devine is neither an out-and-out central midfielder nor a pure attacking midfielder.
Therefore, it is challenging to find comparisons for him because players are typically compared to their positional peers, and with Devine playing multiple positions, this is particularly difficult.
We can see Devine compared to other attacking midfielders in comparable leagues to the Belgian Pro League.
Multiple things stand out here, so let’s take a look at them one by one.
For one,
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