I liked Erik Lamela before it was cool

[Cochise]

I think people are getting way ahead of themselves here. I'm not gonna say he was good in that first half against Palace, but he still made things happen, still tackled back and probably came the closest to opening them up in the first half.

I agree that he doesn't look like he has the pace to beat someone from wide, but most of that I think is due to there being little variance in his game. He's very left footed and always cuts in, I definately think he'd do better bursting down the outside a couple of times or maybe going from the left.

 

[Superhudd]

I reckon I could fix him overnight.

lamela is the player that wants to do a Maradona run via Peter Reid every time he gets the ball. By all means be that player when your feet is touching the white line of the outline of the pitch with a fullback infront of you.. But when he comes inside he should not be allowed more than two touches of the ball. Fine him every time he holds onto the ball. Make him play it simple, make him learn the speed of our game, make him learn the game of the players around him
. Make his confidence grow. Of course it's different if its a counter attack but when we are playing against a bus situation he needs to slow it down more and not act like a headless chicken. The above is the same with Townsend.

 

[Bullet]

People are saying Lamela is more of a forward or second forward than anything else.

Palace had very fast winger/wide forwards in Bolasie and Saha that charged at us fast during the transition of play. Their striker Chamakh didn't really spearhead attacks, it was those guys that rushed forward at pace and attacked us.

Maybe we should do similar with Kane being in the middle, setting things up and playing people through but not being the guy put through on goal; that would be the wide forwards doing the damage i.e. Chadli, Lennon/Lamela released during transition as they aren't asked to defend much... they are in effect our strikers but starting very wide rather than starting against the centre backs.

You could just name that 433 but I don't really mean that, I mean 4312 where the 2 are very wide to start with, not 2 up top like 2 strikers would be.

 

[DTA]

This may seem nuts but I would actually try him up front, works really hard, would run the channels, had a good finish on him at Roma, has really quick feet (which would be more of a factor against CBS)

 

[Yiddo]

I was more than happy to give him time but he is awful. Do not give me the "he is only 22" or "he needs time" *******s as i am sure if we were to buy 10 players of the same age from a different country for a quarter of the price atleast 7 of them would do more than Lamela is doing right now.

He may have shown 1 or 2 promising things in his time here but that is no where near enough for a £30m player. He runs and loses the ball constantly and is worse than Townsend and Lennon.

 

[benp]

This guy is as bad or worse than Townsend for greed. He gets tackled a lot, fine. All his passes seem to be designed so that the other person has to pass it to him back. I really don't like watching this guy play - for all the criticism aimed at Dembele for slowing the play, this guy is twice as guilty. However, he has both feet, and some intense technical ability. I feel he needs to be advanced behind the striker, with zero defensive responsibility (because he can't defend), with a well drilled and organised team making standardised runs that he will be able to hit, or will draw him into 1v1 and 1v2 situations at the edge of the box.

We have a big mess in the middle right now, instead of the clean, purposeful running that I feel he needs. This makes him look ****. He's also not playing in the middle, bt cutting in. Whenever he does that, the other guy needs to get out of the way! Doesn't happen, makes him look **** again. He's aware he looks ****, so he tries to do something special. Dispossed 30 times, scores a Rabona. It's townsend disease. Just all townsend's goals turn up for england (which is probably because they play in a formulaic way like i have described earlier).

 

[Jordinho]

I was more than happy to give him time but he is awful. Do not give me the "he is only 22" or "he needs time" *******s as i am sure if we were to buy 10 players of the same age from a different country for a quarter of the price atleast 7 of them would do more than Lamela is doing right now.

He may have shown 1 or 2 promising things in his time here but that is no where near enough for a £30m player. He runs and loses the ball constantly and is worse than Townsend and Lennon.

:ross:

 

[harr1984]

:ross:

A while ago I might of sided with you Jordinho, but I can actually see Townsend improving little by little. He seems to of discovered the reverse pass and doesnt seem to be as head down as he was.

Lamela hasn't really shown any progress for me,not that Im giving up on him....

 

[Jordinho]

A while ago I might of sided with you Jordinho, but I can actually see Townsend improving little by little. He seems to of discovered the reverse pass and doesnt seem to be as head down as he was.

Lamela hasn't really shown any progress for me,not that Im giving up on him....

Yesterday Townsend was terrible. Every time there was a semblance of quick one touch passing it came to grinding halt when he got the ball. Can't help himself but look for the glory option every time.

 

[Roland Beurre]

Yesterday Townsend was terrible. Every time there was a semblance of quick one touch passing it came to grinding halt when he got the ball. Can't help himself but look for the glory option every time.

I'd agree with you, save that he looked a lot more effective when we were chasing the game and he switched to the left.

Yesterday's performance from Lamela was one where nothing went right; try as I did to cut him some slack, on an emotional level I was disinclined to do so, purely because of the whole transfer fee/hopes, dreams and aspirations baggage.

 

[Steviejman]

I feel Lamela is like Saldado in that they both get pushed off the ball far too easy, it needs someone with a bit of muscle in there.

 

[Raziel]

Mentioned it in transfer threads

If we brought in a wide player in January, would it make sense to loan Lamela out back to Italy?

Best case, he finds his footing again and we bring him back, worst case is we have put him in shop window

 

[Bonsaiboy]

Yesterday Townsend was terrible. Every time there was a semblance of quick one touch passing it came to grinding halt when he got the ball. Can't help himself but look for the glory option every time.

Andros may not have been great yesterday but he was still better than Lamela. If we put him up for sale in January there'd be no shortage of Premier league clubs willing to stump up 12-15 mill - the same can't be said for Lamela.

I have noticed there is a small ground of Lamelaites on this board who constantly try and pick fault with Townsend solely for the purpose of making Lamela seem the better option, which he isn't.

 

[DTA]

Andros may not have been great yesterday but he was still better than Lamela. If we put him up for sale in January there'd be no shortage of Premier league clubs willing to stump up 12-15 mill - the same can't be said for Lamela.

I have noticed there is a small ground of Lamelaites on this board who constantly try and pick fault with Townsend solely for the purpose of making Lamela seem the better option, which he isn't.

In reference to the lamelaites, they seem to be the same as those who will not question pouch as well.

On lamela and in fairness, he has had some decent/good games, but seems to be off form at the moment, when he was playing ok /good I said he has the potential to be a good /very good player but thats his ceiling (Africanspur spotted this after his first couple of games) but people were convinced he would be great comparing him to a young Ronaldo which is ludicrous.

 

[billyiddo]

You mean people who think 15 games is too early to judge a manager also think it's too early to judge a player - well i for one am shocked at that revelation.

 

[DTA]

You mean people who think 15 games is too early to judge a manager also think it's too early to judge a player - well i for one am shocked at that revelation.

That would be a very good point except most of the same people are guilty of judging previous managers extremely quickly... As in before they have even taken charge of a game.

 

[billyiddo]

You have a fantastic memory, especially for someone who has been a member of the board for less than 12 months...

 

[Raziel]

In reference to the lamelaites, they seem to be the same as those who will not question pouch as well.

On lamela and in fairness, he has had some decent/good games, but seems to be off form at the moment, when he was playing ok /good I said he has the potential to be a good /very good player but thats his ceiling (Africanspur spotted this after his first couple of games) but people were convinced he would be great comparing him to a young Ronaldo which is ludicrous.

To Lamela's defense and it's been stated before, he's not some unknown kid we took a punt on, he's made it at every level since a very young age, made every step up and there has always been an expectation of him.

That said, he looks lost in the PL and I think he is a massive negative on Poch, most of Lamela's issues right now can be coached (keep it simple, take the easy pass, if you take on 2 defenders -> pass, don't try for 3 or 4, go outside every now and then, beat the man on the right). Same ****ing mistakes every week, either he's stupid as **** (unlikely) or Poch's team is incapable of getting a player to do simple **** (system coaches and their overcomplicate everything)

And that is where the 15 games argument falls down, this amazingly talented kid hasn't cut a single of his mistakes out of his game ..

 

[DTA]

You have a fantastic memory, especially for someone who has been a member of the board for less than 12 months...

Was reading the ramblings on here for a long time, and I was a member of the old board(s) as well. But thank you, my memory (touch wood) is actually quite exceptional should find a way to montise it more than I do now.

 

[billyiddo]

Well im not sure you're as accurate in your assesment of posters as you think you are so maybe you're best off