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I liked Erik Lamela before it was cool

glasgowspur said:
Really, he's the one that got us through our early struggles while everyone else was off form or out.
It's a squad game and he is a key member of the squad.
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As Alasdair Gold says above, this is probably largely squad management. He played a lot up until recently, a rest now and he is ready to play more when Son is away.
 
glasgowspur said:
Really, he's the one that got us through our early struggles while everyone else was off form or out.
It's a squad game and he is a key member of the squad.
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I think he may have real value in Italy that we can reinvest.
I really don’t see anyway we were resting him yesterday as we were down to the bare bones.
 
StephenH said:
I think he may have real value in Italy that we can reinvest.
I really don’t see anyway we were resting him yesterday as we were down to the bare bones.
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How much upheaval can the squad take in a short period of time. We have to face the possibility that Alderweireld, Dembele and Wanyama will all leave in the next couple of windows. Replacing them will be tough and that probably means that further changes to the squad should be minimised where possible.
 
milo said:
How much upheaval can the squad take in a short period of time. We have to face the possibility that Alderweireld, Dembele and Wanyama will all leave in the next couple of windows. Replacing them will be tough and that probably means that further changes to the squad should be minimised where possible.
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Toby will be missed.
Dembele and Wanyama I can hardly remember what they look like;)
I think we need a new midfielder anyway.
Don’t think we can worry about upheaval as we need reinforcements.
Lamela is too unreliable imo

Ps I’m far from convinced we will get any new blood
 
StephenH said:
Toby will be missed.
Dembele and Wanyama I can hardly remember what they look like;)
I think we need a new midfielder anyway.
Don’t think we can worry about upheaval as we need reinforcements.
Lamela is too unreliable imo
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Lamela has been pretty reliable over the last calendar year. I think that you underestimate how long it would take for us to deal with major changes in the squad. It is definitely time to renew but it needs to be managed and unnecessary changes avoided.
 
Definitely keep him around.
He is versatile and committed enough to be a sub option. He knows when he gets injured it is delicate (I think he spoke in detail about it in a recent interview).
He is settled in London and at the club.
The players and fans get a lift when he is around.
He is very talented.

Just don't ever rely on him as a "first xi" player. Having a player that can play only twenty games a season but still naturally slot in is very valuable. (A bit like Park did at Man U)
 
monkeybarry said:
Definitely keep him around.
He is versatile and committed enough to be a sub option. He knows when he gets injured it is delicate (I think he spoke in detail about it in a recent interview).
He is settled in London and at the club.
The players and fans get a lift when he is around.
He is very talented.

Just don't ever rely on him as a "first xi" player. Having a player that can play only twenty games a season but still naturally slot in is very valuable. (A bit like Park did at Man U)
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He was also, arguably, our best player in the first quarter of this season.
 
StephenH said:
But we need players we can rely on?
Like yesterday?
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But you can't have a 25 man "first xi" squad and keep them all hungry and happy.
My point is, Lamela is hungry and happy every opportunity he gets, but is also realistic that he won't play 45-55 games a season. So even when he is available he is just an "option". And is almost always on form and hungry when called upon.
 
StephenH said:
But we need players we can rely on?
Like yesterday?
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Just further to that, we had 15 players yesterday who we should be able to rely on (excluding Skipp because it's too early and GKN because....just because).
We still have four out of our five attacking midfielders playing.
We also only had two (exc Skipp) out of five CMs available. Dier is unfortunate. Dembele and Wanyama have unreliable fitness.
You can't carry two Injury prone players. But you can carry one of they have the right attitude.
I would go as far as saying Lamela is probably the best (maybe Man C have someone) "squad player" in the PL.
 
monkeybarry said:
But you can't have a 25 man "first xi" squad and keep them all hungry and happy.
My point is, Lamela is hungry and happy every opportunity he gets, but is also realistic that he won't play 45-55 games a season. So even when he is available he is just an "option". And is almost always on form and hungry when called upon.
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For these very reasons he would be moving on like any non reliable player fitness wise ie Wanyama and possibly Dembele.
We don’t need part timers because like yesterday they are about as much use as a chocolate teapot when needed.
 
monkeybarry said:
Just further to that, we had 15 players yesterday who we should be able to rely on (excluding Skipp because it's too early and GKN because....just because).
We still have four out of our five attacking midfielders playing.
We also only had two (exc Skipp) out of five CMs available. Dier is unfortunate. Dembele and Wanyama have unreliable fitness.
You can't carry two Injury prone players. But you can carry one of they have the right attitude.
I would go as far as saying Lamela is probably the best (maybe Man C have someone) "squad player" in the PL.
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We though must maximise everyone in our small and some would say shallow quality wise squad.
Lamela can be excellent no doubt but he’s far to fragile for us. He would be great at a Chelsea but not for us we are too thin already fitness/quality wise.
 
StephenH said:
We though must maximise everyone in our small and some would say shallow quality wise squad.
Lamela can be excellent no doubt but he’s far to fragile for us. He would be great at a Chelsea but not for us we are too thin already fitness/quality wise.
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Our squad isn’t small and doesn’t lack quality

What we have lacked is enough fit players with the relevant experience. Any squad would be stretched with our injuries. City can’t handle losing Fernandinho for crying out loud and they have spent £500m

We can carry 3/4 players being injured but we currently seem to run with 6/7 full experienced players which is highly unusual
 
Bedfordspurs said:
Our squad isn’t small and doesn’t lack quality

What we have lacked is enough fit players with the relevant experience. Any squad would be stretched with our injuries. City can’t handle losing Fernandinho for crying out loud and they have spent £500m

We can carry 3/4 players being injured but we currently seem to run with 6/7 full experienced players which is highly unusual
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Arsenal and Wolves defeats was the direct result of the lack of quality in depth.
We had tired and injured player that we could not rest and replace especially with respect to Wolves.
Our competitors can all of them except maybe Arsenal.
We are doing great but we are still overachieving in spades.
 
StephenH said:
Arsenal and Wolves defeats was the direct result of the lack of quality in depth.
We had tired and injured player that we could not rest and replace especially with respect to Wolves.
Our competitors can all of them except maybe Arsenal.
We are doing great but we are still overachieving in spades.
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How do you explain Chelsea losing to wolves and Leicester?

What about city vs palace?

They lost even with rotation...

Other teams squads are no better they just haven’t had the injuries. Pools bench yesterday with a fully fit squad was fit me quite average

We lost vs arse because we came off the back of two massive games and still needed our best players. They had NO game mid week that their adults played in, hence they were Fresh and full of energy

Wolves was quite similar as we have played I think 7 more games and they were missing no players from their best team.
 
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