I liked Erik Lamela before it was cool

[Mumorn]

Re: Official - Lamela

I think Lamela does need to bulk up abit. I think he can be succesful with the body type he has now but I think he needs to add 'power' to his game to get to that next level. He isn't weak but I think if he could get that bit of strength to power past a player, he'd be unstoppable.

 

[Bullet]

Re: Official - Lamela

He looks like an excellent player to me - extremely talented, intelligent, classy, willing to track back all the way... I suppose people expect him to flatten the pitch/turf as he runs or something? That was a terrible pitch today and freezing temperatures, he is more suited to a hot night in Buenos Aires I imagine.

 

[AberYid]

Re: Official - Lamela

his style isn't beating a man with pace. He isn't rapid neither, I'd say his speed was close to that of Berbatov, who wasn't particularly slow but he could get away from a man with great balance and ball control. He isn't a shoot from distance and score in the top corner player neither. His goals consist of tap ins or curlers into the bottom corner from the edge of the box, once he hits his stride he'll be fine.

Pace or otherwise, you can beat a man with a trick or what have you. I'm yet to see it. I know you watch Roma, and all I've seen are highlight videos, but there's a clip of him barging his way through two defenders, there's clips of him pinging it from 20 yards, I know he'll take time, but apart from his ball against Cardiff for Paulinho, I'm struggling to see the fuss.

Mumorn, can you categorically 100% promise me he'll change my mind?

 

[Mumorn]

Re: Official - Lamela

Pace or otherwise, you can beat a man with a trick or what have you. I'm yet to see it. I know you watch Roma, and all I've seen are highlight videos, but there's a clip of him barging his way through two defenders, there's clips of him pinging it from 20 yards, I know he'll take time, but apart from his ball against Cardiff for Paulinho, I'm struggling to see the fuss.

Mumorn, can you categorically 100% promise me he'll change my mind?

I can't promise anything, it's up to Lamela. good footballers can pull of a great game here and there, it's the potential world class ones who try their best and make themselves adapt, if Lamela does that we'll have someone special on our hands, the sort of special I saw plenty of times in Italy. Remember it's a different league though, I mean Gervinho is looking like a world beater for my Roma side right now.

 

[onlyme]

Re: Official - Lamela

He looks like an excellent player to me - extremely talented, intelligent, classy, willing to track back all the way... I suppose people expect him to flatten the pitch/turf as he runs or something? That was a terrible pitch today and freezing temperatures, he is more suited to a hot night in Buenos Aires I imagine.

Good point.
New team, new country.
AVB is picking the right games for him. I would give him until next year before forming a definite opinion.

 

[Bonsaiboy]

Re: Official - Lamela

Far too early to form an opinion on him, he obviously needs a while to settle in, but it's perfectly reasonable to say that he hasn't looked that great so far, because that's the truth.

He's looked like a 10-15 Million pound prospect, not a 30 Million player. This may be the wrong league for him. Only time will tell.

Townsend is ahead of him at the moment.

 

[braineclipse]

Re: Official - Lamela

I think Lamela does need to bulk up abit. I think he can be succesful with the body type he has now but I think he needs to add 'power' to his game to get to that next level. He isn't weak but I think if he could get that bit of strength to power past a player, he'd be unstoppable.

I know this has been discussed recently, but I just don't see this at all. He looks plenty strong to me. Again today there where times where opponents tried to outmuscle him to get in front of him, but he just had none of that and stepped in front of them with what seems to me to be great strength and balance for a player with his "style".

Pace or otherwise, you can beat a man with a trick or what have you. I'm yet to see it. I know you watch Roma, and all I've seen are highlight videos, but there's a clip of him barging his way through two defenders, there's clips of him pinging it from 20 yards, I know he'll take time, but apart from his ball against Cardiff for Paulinho, I'm struggling to see the fuss.

Mumorn, can you categorically 100% promise me he'll change my mind?

Every time he's on the pitch I'm getting impressed by all the small things he does. The little dinked balls to play through a line of pressure, the close control, his composure on the ball, his close control. Looks immensely talented and just needs a bit of time to settle in the way I see it.

Far too early to form an opinion on him, he obviously needs a while to settle in, but it's perfectly reasonable to say that he hasn't looked that great so far, because that's the truth.

He's looked like a 10-15 Million pound prospect, not a 30 Million player. This may be the wrong league for him. Only time will tell.

Townsend is ahead of him at the moment.

He's looked immensely talented to me. That's also a fact.

 

[clevelandspur]

Re: Official - Lamela

Far too early to form an opinion on him, he obviously needs a while to settle in, but it's perfectly reasonable to say that he hasn't looked that great so far, because that's the truth.

He's looked like a 10-15 Million pound prospect, not a 30 Million player. This may be the wrong league for him. Only time will tell.

Townsend is ahead of him at the moment.

Spot on I think regardless of what he cost he hasn't really impressed me too much. I think the fans are behind him for the most part now which is what he needs. However, looking at ratings of matches before today I could tell people are being overly generous. He hasn't looked great for us yet. I said in OMT against Chelsea was shocked the number of people who wanted him to start, has done nothing to warrant an EPL start yet.

Again don't want to sound negative but so far have not been impressed but you can see he has more in his locker and needs time to adjust to us and the country and language etc..

 

[indianspur]

Re: Official - Lamela

id have liked AVB to shift Lamela on the left.....for example yesterday i didnt see why Chadli and Lamela couldnt have swapped positions. Cr@p opposition, we were already 2-0 up, why not experiment a bit. Chadli was completely anonymous yesterday apart from the goal and one shot in the second half

 

[indianspur]

Re: Official - Lamela

Far too early to form an opinion on him, he obviously needs a while to settle in, but it's perfectly reasonable to say that he hasn't looked that great so far, because that's the truth.

He's looked like a 10-15 Million pound prospect, not a 30 Million player. This may be the wrong league for him. Only time will tell.

Townsend is ahead of him at the moment.

is price that important when assessing a player?....i mean we signed Vertonghen for 7 mill pounds, does he play like a 7 mill pound player, does Sandro look like a 6 mill pound player??

Townsend is ahead of him you say. How much did Townsend cost?

 

[braineclipse]

Re: Official - Lamela

id have liked AVB to shift Lamela on the left.....for example yesterday i didnt see why Chadli and Lamela couldnt have swapped positions. Cr@p opposition, we were already 2-0 up, why not experiment a bit. Chadli was completely anonymous yesterday apart from the goal and one shot in the second half

On the other hand you could say that Lamela is likely to play most of his game from the right and for him to spend some time getting used to playing ahead of Walker and trying to help that relationship along was a good idea. Or rather, if they had switched wings someone could have complained about AVB not letting that happen.

Similarly Chadli seems more suited to playing on the left than on the right, he's still integrating and he was returning from injury. Why not let the man play in his more natural position where he even managed to pop up with a goal? (someone could have complained if AVB had switched them)

is price that important when assessing a player?....i mean we signed Vertonghen for 7 mill pounds, does he play like a 7 mill pound player, does Sandro look like a 6 mill pound player??

Townsend is ahead of him you say. How much did Townsend cost?

Good points. Worth noting that players like Vertonghen, Chadli and Eriksen probably would have cost a lot more if not for their contract situation.

Them being (arguably) excellent deals for what they cost us shouldn't take anything away from what Lamela brings to the side imo. Of course a year or three from now as we think back and consider which were the better deals as we argue over our transfer policy it's probably fair to bring up the price

 

[Kingdawson]

Re: Official - Lamela

Far too early to form an opinion on him, he obviously needs a while to settle in, but it's perfectly reasonable to say that he hasn't looked that great so far, because that's the truth.

He's looked like a 10-15 Million pound prospect, not a 30 Million player. This may be the wrong league for him. Only time will tell.

Townsend is ahead of him at the moment.

So on 2 five minute cameos and a game against a team with the ****test pitch ever you have come to the conclusion that he's worth 10-15m. How have you based this on?

* His assist vs Cardiff plus 10m?

* His shot on goal vs Gooners plus 2m?

* His performance vs Anzhi plus 3m?

 

[Bonsaiboy]

Re: Official - Lamela

So on 2 five minute cameos and a game against a team with the ****test pitch ever you have come to the conclusion that he's worth 10-15m. How have you based this on?

* His assist vs Cardiff plus 10m?

* His shot on goal vs Gooners plus 2m?

* His performance vs Anzhi plus 3m?

It's what I haven't seen in those performances that has concerned me. He doesn't look like he's got the beating of a man, his pace isn't exceptional and he lacks strength as well. For the position of an inverted winger, Townsend will be ahead of him for the foreseeable future. He offers so much more, in terms of pace and strength. Qualities invaluable in the EPL were games are played a high tempo and often become stretched.

Lamela may find himself better suited to be a number 10, playing behind the striker or being the striker himself. There is definitely a great player in there but I'm gonna say here and now that he won't displace Townsend in the role he plays.

 

[The Moonlit Knight]

Re: Official - Lamela

is price that important when assessing a player?....i mean we signed Vertonghen for 7 mill pounds, does he play like a 7 mill pound player, does Sandro look like a 6 mill pound player??

Townsend is ahead of him you say. How much did Townsend cost?

Yes, especially if the price is high. Look at the **** we give Liverpool for their signings. The signings weren't bad signings, but they were bad signings at that price.

 

[braineclipse]

Re: Official - Lamela

It's what I haven't seen in those performances that has concerned me. He doesn't look like he's got the beating of a man, his pace isn't exceptional and he lacks strength as well. For the position of an inverted winger, Townsend will be ahead of him for the foreseeable future. He offers so much more, in terms of pace and strength. Qualities invaluable in the EPL were games are played a high tempo and often become stretched.

Lamela may find himself better suited to be a number 10, playing behind the striker or being the striker himself. There is definitely a great player in there but I'm gonna say here and now that he won't displace Townsend in the role he plays.

Yeah, look at Mata, Silva, Cazorla, Oscar etc. All strong and exceptionally quick proving that those are invaluable qualities in the PL. Lamela looks at least as strong physically as Townsend to me by the way.

He won't displace Townsend in the role he plays? Strong words... Talk about jumping to conclusions.

 

[braineclipse]

Re: Official - Lamela

Yes, especially if the price is high. Look at the **** we give Liverpool for their signings. The signings weren't bad signings, but they were bad signings at that price.

Did we do that after 2 starts and 3 sub appearances with a total of less than 45 minutes of PL football for their club?

 

[indianspur]

Re: Official - Lamela

Yes, especially if the price is high. Look at the **** we give Liverpool for their signings. The signings weren't bad signings, but they were bad signings at that price.

no, they were bad signings.....Andy Carroll is an average player whether he costs 6 mill or 35 mill. Same goes for Henderson and Downing

i like footballers who have technical skill, can control a ball in an instant, have vision, in terms of attackers those who can assist and shoot accurately at goal. Lamela looks to have these traits, Eriksen, Chadli and Paulinho too

maybe we paid too much for Lamela but on the other hand we paid too little for Eriksen. That just shows why its no use using the price tag when determining the quality of the player. Each player has to be assessed independent of what was paid for him.

 

[The Moonlit Knight]

Re: Official - Lamela

Did we do that after 2 starts and 3 sub appearances with a total of less than 45 minutes of PL football for their club?

We did it before they even kicked a ball at Liverpool, at least in Carroll & Downing's case!

 

[The Moonlit Knight]

Re: Official - Lamela

no, they were bad signings.....Andy Carroll is an average player whether he costs 6 mill or 35 mill. Same goes for Henderson and Downing
i like footballers who have technical skill, can control a ball in an instant, have vision, in terms of attackers those who can assist and shoot accurately at goal. Lamela looks to have these traits, Eriksen, Chadli and Paulinho too

maybe we paid too much for Lamela but on the other hand we paid too little for Eriksen. That just shows why its no use using the price tag when determining the quality of the player. Each player has to be assessed independent of what was paid for him.

Carroll for £6m would be a steal. He is worth double that.

Clubs like Spurs are not bottomless pits of money. Therefore high value transfers have to be absolutely spot on or it can harm us for a couple of seasons. There IS more pressure on players with a larger price tag, wages etc.

 

[indianspur]

Re: Official - Lamela

Carroll for £6m would be a steal. He is worth double that.

Clubs like Spurs are not bottomless pits of money. Therefore high value transfers have to be absolutely spot on or it can harm us for a couple of seasons. There IS more pressure on players with a larger price tag, wages etc.

100% agree on that, and it depends on each individual player if he can cope. We dont know how much this will affect Lamela for example. The pressure comes from the fans and media but the actual price tag shouldnt reflect the player's ability.

i dont agree about Carroll....its not just his ability, its his fitness record too thats just as questionable. West Ham paid twice the 6 mill you suggest and look where its got them.