• Dear Guest, Please note that adult content is not permitted on this forum. We have had our Google ads disabled at times due to some posts that were found from some time ago. Please do not post adult content and if you see any already on the forum, please report the post so that we can deal with it. Adult content is allowed in the glory hole - you will have to request permission to access it. Thanks, scara

I liked Erik Lamela before it was cool

glasgowspur said:
Can he press halfway up the pitch and be in goal scoring positions at the same time though?
It's the Lamella/Chadli conundrum. One presses, affects his scoring chances, other doesnt press, but is in the box to convert the chances.
Click to expand...

If you were to ask me to choose between those 2, i would say Lamela and considering i would have taken £10m for him a year ago i think thats a massive improvement.
 
Vega said:
If you were to ask me to choose between those 2, i would say Lamela and considering i would have taken £10m for him a year ago i think thats a massive improvement.
Click to expand...
I'm the same, i would have disappointed but at the start of the season I thought it might be best to call it a day on him. Now I see him as an important and integral part of the team.
 
Danishfurniturelover said:
Nope I think the are better players out there, not that he is bad, but until he adds to his game I do not think he is good enough. I have seen Dembele improve so I will trust Poch to do what is best.
Click to expand...

He just turned 24 and has been improving constantly (though not always rapidly) for some time now. Seems like a really strange time to give up on him.

Also in general seems like a strange move to get rid of any of our current first choice 11. If we sign a new player we expect to be good enough or compete for a place in our strongest 11 they should replace players further down the pecking order making current first choice players the new squad players/competitors. No reason at all to sell someone that we know works well in our system to replace them with an unknown quantity and deprive ourselves of the option provided by the player that was first choice.
 
Spurs7891 said:
Frankly, Pochettino should build the team around him, making him the playmaker and captain of the team ! He always seems to be fired up in all the matches. That can really motivate the other players. He will be a great player if he can score more league goals though.
Click to expand...

The end product isn't quite there enough to be our playmaker and captain. He's a bit too reckless to be a captain also. He is important to our tempo I agree.
 
galeforce said:
It's not his end product that makes my pants sticky, it's his relentless pressing and disruption of the opposition.
Click to expand...

True, but Eriksen and Alli also work hard and produce more. Look, I don't want to sound too harsh on Lamela because looks a different player completely to last season, I'm just thinking if we do want to improve next season, he needs to improve his end product.
 
I think Lamela, Eriksen, Chadli and Alli prove how good a coach Poch is....if you took them out the system and coaching and put them in Emirates Marketing Project, they would not be anywhere near the quality they are now, because its about a system, a job, knowing your role, learning it and executing it.

Thats where Toure for example fails, high paid and apparent class, but does that mean he will drill himself and work harder? No

So whats more important, Lamela as part of the spurs team, doign what we did yesterday as a Unit, or looking at individual performance looking for the next Gazza??
 
Grays_1890 said:
I think Lamela, Eriksen, Chadli and Alli prove how good a coach Poch is....if you took them out the system and coaching and put them in Emirates Marketing Project, they would not be anywhere near the quality they are now, because its about a system, a job, knowing your role, learning it and executing it.

Thats where Toure for example fails, high paid and apparent class, but does that mean he will drill himself and work harder? No

So whats more important, Lamela as part of the spurs team, doign what we did yesterday as a Unit, or looking at individual performance looking for the next Gazza??
Click to expand...

How can you put Chadli in with them???

It sounds like I'm picking on him again but the guy is the laziest player I've seen under Poch - he makes Paulinho look dynamic
 
@galeforce

Lamela is a good player and having a good season. But Harry Kane is our best and most important player imo. Put it this way -- for our next game, if you had to leave one of them out of the team, would you really choose to leave out Harry and keep Lamela in? Of course not.
 
the dza said:
@galeforce

Lamela is a good player and having a good season. But Harry Kane is our best and most important player imo. Put it this way -- for our next game, if you had to leave one of them out of the team, would you really choose to leave out Harry and keep Lamela in? Of course not.
Click to expand...

I don't think Kane is anything other than brilliant, i'd rather not leave either out.

We have a squad of exceptional youngsters who all do their bit, but, from what I've seen this season, Lamela's absence makes the most notable hole in the system.
 
galeforce said:
I don't think Kane is anything other than brilliant, i'd rather not leave either out.

We have a squad of exceptional youngsters who all do their bit, but, from what I've seen this season, Lamela's absence makes the most notable hole in the system.
Click to expand...
Kane will always be the main man. But I agree about Lamela. When he doesn't play I feel there is something missing. Our frontline pressing is reduced and this affects our ability as s team to win the ball high up the field.

He really does set our pressing tempo brilliantly
 
His pressing is exceptional and this no doubt impacts profoundly on the esprit de corps running through the team, but he is often profligate in possession, something Pochettino is doubtless working very hard on. Once he gets that bit right - and it's definitely coming - THEN we have a player.
 
RunTMC said:
Kane will always be the main man. But I agree about Lamela. When he doesn't play I feel there is something missing. Our frontline pressing is reduced and this affects our ability as s team to win the ball high up the field.

He really does set our pressing tempo brilliantly
Click to expand...


Yes he does and he does it better then anyone else, I can not remember a player who works as hard as he does, the only one that I can remember who did was Perryman.
 
Spur of the moment said:
His pressing is exceptional and this no doubt impacts profoundly on the esprit de corps running through the team, but he is often profligate in possession, something Pochettino is doubtless working very hard on. Once he gets that bit right - and it's definitely coming - THEN we have a player.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's such an easy issue to fix: to my mind, the two go hand in hand, because when you spend so much time pressing maniacally, you're bound to think at that speed when you receive the ball, and accordingly you'll make some quick decisions that end up being the wrong ones. Had you slowed down to consider your options, you might not have made that pass.

Only the very, very best players can play at that speed and still consistently make the right decisions. It's one of the reasons why the 'languid' playmaker isn't as impressive to me as a hustler who can also pass consistently well: the former has all the time in the world to consider his options while off the ball, but the latter has to press to get it and then move it on, with little time for consideration in between.

The whole 'press and then mess up the pass occasionally' thing is intrinsic to his playing style. There's a small chance he improves on it, but honestly, I'm perfectly happy with how he is now: if he make the right decision with the ball about 3/4s of the time while still pressing maniacally, that's actually really good from my standpoint, given the evident difficulty of achieving the above.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back