I was one of those who gave him a 6 on the Google forms thing. Watching it live (on BT), I thought his main contribution was as an annoyance to Arsenal when they had possession. I watched it again and noticed some positive contributions, like the corner (d'oh!), plus some lung busting runs to get back in defence when Arsenal were countering.
I think when evaluating Lamela we have to compare him, as you suggest, more to Willian than Hazard. Paying £25mln for a Trevor Hockey-type player (ask your grandfather) is a bit steep, and he obviously has the potential to be a lot better than just a hard-pressing midfielder; a few goals would certainly go a long way to override the biased opinion of him I seem to have developed.
So, definitely worth a 7 in my book (though the tempation was to give them all 11, in true Nigel Tufnell style)
I've re-watched the game now - I was at the match so always good to see it again from the TV perspective.
First not entirely related comment - HOW F***ING GOOD WERE WE??? Oh wow. I thought this obviously at the time but even more now I've seen it again. We absolutely dominated from start to finish, every aspect of our game was top drawer. And the noise from us Yids was incredible - a WALL OF SOUND. The Scum just melted away in the face of Poch's THFC and our support.
Back to Lamela. I think my 8.5/score for his 'on the ball' contributions, was maybe a bit high. He did get caught on it a few times too. Occasionally this was due to not seeing an option and Scum recovering to get him, occasionally it was due to Lamela's dawdling on it.
I think that, overall, his on the ball contribution was more of a 50-50 good/bad split than I thought while watching the game. But I was swayed towards a higher rating by the rest of what I saw: prodigious work rate and 3/4 excellent challenges/interceptions followed by good runs and one-two exchanges. He looked to me like a player utterly possessed in terms of his dedication. And as I say his fight on more than one occasion 'lifted' the crowd.
I understand what you're saying about the fee - but I'm just IGNORING his fee when I am assessing Erik Lamela. Again as you fairly say, if (and I believe it is 'when') he adds the goals to his game he will really take off. He is a dangerous player already - gets into good positions, just like he did on Sat - and he just has 'something' about him for me.
If I was rerating this match, I'd give Lamela an 8. I'd also give Mason a 9. (I gave him 8.5). Mason was all over the pitch. Covered every blade of grass and a complete, intelligent, committed CM performance. Loved Whinger's moaning about 'what he got away with' apparently. Shut up Whinger - you're just upset as Mason (& Bentaleb) bent your CMs over and gave them a good rogering.
COYS
