While things at Wolverhampton Wanderers appear to once again be on the up under the management of Bruno Lage, with the club currently sitting seventh in the Premier League standings, there are nevertheless a number of issues at Molineux that the 45-year-old coach must address in January if his side are to have any hope of qualifying for European football this season.

Indeed, Wolves are incredibly short of options at both centre-back and in central midfield at present, with the latter being a particularly big concern for the club when going forwards.

So far this season, Lage's side have scored just 12 goals in the top flight - ranking their attack as the second-worst in the league - with Ruben Neves, Leander Dendoncker and Joao Moutinho having scored just one goal and provided one assist between them over their combined 40 Premier League appearances this term.

As such, a move to sign a more attacking option in the middle of the park this January would appear a very wise one indeed, with Tottenham Hotspur's Dele Alli potentially being a viable candidate for the West Midlands side.

Dele could solve Wolves' problem

Speaking on Sky Sports Soccer Saturday (via Birmingham Live) following Wolves' last gasp defeat to Liverpool last weekend, Paul Merson stated his belief that Dele and Bruno Lage's side could be something of a match made in heaven.

Discussing the club's lack of a central midfielder to bomb on and help the Wolves attack, Merson said: "They need someone who is willing to run past [Raul] Jimenez and that might cause problems. Neves, Moutinho - they're players who spray the ball left and right.

"They need someone who will run, [someone who] might cause problems. At the moment they don't really look like scoring - 12 in 15 games, that's not good enough. They need a midfield player who is going to nick a few goals.

"You know what? That might be Dele Alli. If you can get Dele Alli to another club and he can get his mojo back, he might be the answer for them."

Indeed, with Dele having played just two minutes of Premier League football since Antonio Conte's arrival in North London, the possibility of the attacking midfielder being available on the market this January would appear a very real one.

And, while it is true that the £27m-rated man has been far from his best in recent seasons, should Lage be able to help the former England international refind his previously exceptional level of form after a potential switch to Molineux, Merson could well be proven right in claiming that the 25-year-old may be the answer to the Portuguese manager's goalscoring woes.

Indeed, over his 37 Premier League outings back in 2016/17, Dele scored a whopping 18 goals, registered seven assists and created five big chances for his teammates, with these returns seeing the £100k-per-week midfielder earn a seasonal SofaScore match rating of 7.04.

As such, as long as Lage is confident that he could indeed get the player who Darren Anderton dubbed a "freak of a talent" back to this level, a move for Dele this winter could well prove to be an extremely smart move by Fosun and Jeff Shi - as well as one which allows Morgan Gibbs-White to continue his development on loan at Sheffield United, rather than recalling the 21-year-old as has been mooted.

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