That's what I mean by Ronaldo - he's still amazingly agile and quick-footed, he's just also strong enough to run with the ball without getting brushed off.
Though Ronaldo is probably blessed with rare physical gifts, I think plenty of slight physiques are doing well here - I mean, I don't think Mata, Oscar, Coutinho etc are the strongest kids on the block even in the shortarse-with-treetrunks-for-legs sense that Argentina seems to produce all the time, it's more about thinking quickly and moving the ball so quickly the challenges don't have time to get in, or at least drawing fouls.
I do think strikers and dribblers are more dependent on acceleration and being able to fend off challenges than playmakers/passers, who are more reliant on their brains and nimble feet. However, Lamela doesn't appear to be a head-down, run-fast dribbler at all - he's been a more than willing passer and very aware both on and off the ball (just look at that soft scooped ball through Villa's CBs he delicately lifted first-time that laid on a *perfect* volley opportunity for either Kane or Defoe in the first few minutes of the game ... Eriksen-esque
). His goals at Roma have come more from clever runs than solo goals after dribbling through five defenders.
I think in the Villa game, it was more that he was getting tired in that second half so he started dwelling on the ball a little, and I don't think that's surprising given how poor a preseason Roma fans said he had and his relative lack of defensive duties at Roma; the amount of pressing he has to do now under AVB is probably pretty novel and a shock to his system (hell, our own players took half a season to figure it out ... we didn't stop shipping late goals until the turn of the year :lol
.
