I liked Erik Lamela before it was cool

[ringo]

The fact that we need to search for excuses for Lamela, and that there is this much dissension about his merits, suggests that he is just not good enough. The kinds of errors he makes are not the kind that suggest he is going to come good in this league with time. If he really was going to improve he would have watched his own performances, analysed what was going wrong, and corrected it by now. After all most people on the board know where he is going wrong, I'm sure the Spurs' staff do too. It is no that complicated, either. The fact that he turns in such woeful performances suggests he either he doesn't take it on board, or can't.

We should recoup whatever we can and spend it on someone who we know can do a job wide right - if that is Lamela's designated position.

 

[metalgear]

i'm still a fan of lamela, though these are trying times. i'm sure he will score goals and wonderful ones, increasingly likely to me that it may not be for us.

 

[90291Spur]

i'm still a fan of lamela, though these are trying times. i'm sure he will score goals and wonderful ones, increasingly likely to me that it may not be for us.

It was distressing to see him dawdle on the ball numbers times at the Toon. If he doesn't get the pace of the English game now I wonder if he ever will.

 

[metalgear]

yes, clearly a confidence issue. i think not playing for so long took something out of him. badly.

really could have used him in the last few games where we had no zest; could've kept him warm.

but i think the way we play - creative midfielders getting the ball facing our own goal is wrong. only modric and parker would excel in this role.

 

[braineclipse]

To be fair, you have selected the moment where the defender stood his ground but he was always facing that side for a pass. Plus that still doesn't show mason's momentum from his perfectly timed run or the fact kane was holding his run a bit, trying to avoid going too early. You are right that the pass to him was fine, it's an incredibly easy situation but most professional footballers imo would have chose the other option and thats why he gets himself into constant bother. No one was getting close to Mason.

The thing that struck me yesterday was his lack of first touch, control or vision. It could be down to confidence but something dramatic has to happen for him to turn a corner otherwise defenders will keep on getting tight looking to bully him and he hasn't got the touch, pace or stength to stop this currently,

I was an avid supporter up until the turn of the year, but then it dawned on me that he looks a terrible fit for us and this league. He also does himself no favours with his constant brain farts and I would be really pleasantly shocked if he went on to be the next big thing like he was billed upon arrival

I selected the moment just before he made the pass... The time when you would rather see him make a pass to Mason... Why isn't that the moment we're talking about?

I thought it was a pretty useful use of one runner as the decoy to play the ball the other way. Not that uncommon.

yes, clearly a confidence issue. i think not playing for so long took something out of him. badly.

really could have used him in the last few games where we had no zest; could've kept him warm.

but i think the way we play - creative midfielders getting the ball facing our own goal is wrong. only modric and parker would excel in this role.

Not trying to make excuses for him, but he's (imo) clearly looking desperate to succeed and desperate to make an impact. Thought that was part of why he was so poor in the first half against Saudi Sportswashing Machine, he lacked the composure and assured nature of someone more settled. I wonder if Poch just told him to keep it simpler and relax at half time... We've seen similar from him in the past when he's just been getting back into the side, always looking for the difficult option to make something happen straight away.

Hope he's given a couple more games at least now to settle down and try to make an impact and gain some confidence. Shifting him in and right out again makes no sense to me.

 

[Finney Is Back]

I could be wrong.... I was at the game so my view of it was likely to be even worse than yours... But I thought the linesman was going to put his flag up due to the delay in the pass being made. Hopefully I'll get the chance to watch the game in full later tonight as I Sky +'d it.

OK so I watched my Sky+ recording last night and I was wrong on this count.... The pass was fine and well timed. The ball to Mason would've been the better one as he was running at pace and would've received the ball much further ahead of the defender, however just like Lamela I would rather give the ball to a number 9 to finish instead of giving it to Ryan Mason so it's no surprise that Lamela took the opportunity to pass to Kane.

Watching the repeat indicated to me that I was spot on with the rest of my analysis about Lamela though. He continually gave the ball away in the first half and had absolutely zero positive impact on the game. In the second half Saudi Sportswashing Machine then seemed to change their shape as they put on another forward and that left Lamela with more room and time to operate in and he was then OK from then on (although still a long way from being good). Hopefully his performances will improve in these last few games of the season. If not then I think we should be looking to offload him this summer while we still have a chance of getting some sort of reasonable fee for him.

 

[metalgear]

if we attribute kane's excellent settling in to the first team, being calm and and all likewise poch has got to shoulder some blame for making lamela jittery and desperate...though its quite possible that he intended it that way.

point is the coach's got to ensure the player is ready to start a game. he sees the players in training all the time.

 

[LCLC]

I selected the moment just before he made the pass... The time when you would rather see him make a pass to Mason... Why isn't that the moment we're talking about?

I thought it was a pretty useful use of one runner as the decoy to play the ball the other way. Not that uncommon.



Not trying to make excuses for him, but he's (imo) clearly looking desperate to succeed and desperate to make an impact. Thought that was part of why he was so poor in the first half against Saudi Sportswashing Machine, he lacked the composure and assured nature of someone more settled. I wonder if Poch just told him to keep it simpler and relax at half time... We've seen similar from him in the past when he's just been getting back into the side, always looking for the difficult option to make something happen straight away.

Hope he's given a couple more games at least now to settle down and try to make an impact and gain some confidence. Shifting him in and right out again makes no sense to me.

My point is that it was the more difficult pass and that most players would have slotted in the other player. Nothing wrong in it at all and he executed the pass well despite it being pretty simple.

I dont agree on your assessment of him trying too hard. Watch back and the majority of times he lost the ball was from getting bullied, showing a poor first touch, lacking awareness to see the defender or trying to dribble in the wrong spaces.... confidence is an issue and I don't see him getting it back anytime soon because players have worked him out and either get tight and bully him or show him inside and let him dribble into trouble. He is so easy to play against from a defensive point of a view.

Confidence is key for any footballer but I don't see why you think his performance was anything to do with being out of the team. He has played like that nearly every week earlier in the season when it seemed he would never be dropped. He has had long runs in the team and there hasn't been any improvement - when he has been taken out of the firing line he has returned the same player! Bar 2/3 games he has played close to that level all season and it is simply not good enough - considering the hype and money we paid (not his fault) it makes me wince every time he gives it away!

 

[mudshark]

I think he's a player with a wonderful future behind him, I'm sad to say; as far as the Premier League is concerned, at any rate. It's looking increasingly unlikely that the epiphany is going to arrive.

 

[braineclipse]

if we attribute kane's excellent settling in to the first team, being calm and and all likewise poch has got to shoulder some blame for making lamela jittery and desperate...though its quite possible that he intended it that way.

point is the coach's got to ensure the player is ready to start a game. he sees the players in training all the time.

Very different situations though. Can't succeed with them all, particularly not in the first season.

My point is that it was the more difficult pass and that most players would have slotted in the other player. Nothing wrong in it at all and he executed the pass well despite it being pretty simple.

I dont agree on your assessment of him trying too hard. Watch back and the majority of times he lost the ball was from getting bullied, showing a poor first touch, lacking awareness to see the defender or trying to dribble in the wrong spaces.... confidence is an issue and I don't see him getting it back anytime soon because players have worked him out and either get tight and bully him or show him inside and let him dribble into trouble. He is so easy to play against from a defensive point of a view.

Confidence is key for any footballer but I don't see why you think his performance was anything to do with being out of the team. He has played like that nearly every week earlier in the season when it seemed he would never be dropped. He has had long runs in the team and there hasn't been any improvement - when he has been taken out of the firing line he has returned the same player! Bar 2/3 games he has played close to that level all season and it is simply not good enough - considering the hype and money we paid (not his fault) it makes me wince every time he gives it away!

I argued against your claim that it was the wrong choice at the time. If you say there was nothing wrong with it we agree.

The first half against Saudi Sportswashing Machine (what I was talking about) was not representative for how he's been playing this season.

Disagree that there was no improvement. Quite a bit of improvement over the first half of the season imo.

 

[Finney Is Back]

The first half against Saudi Sportswashing Machine (what I was talking about) was not representative for how he's been playing this season.

Disagree that there was no improvement. Quite a bit of improvement over the first half of the season imo.

I think the first half against Saudi Sportswashing Machine was representative of how he has been playing in patches this season. It has just taken him all of this time to achieve a bit of consistency and manage to do it for a whole 45 minutes.

 

[indianspur]

i think Lamela is the type that needs to be playing week in week out to establish a bit of confidence, rhythm and consistency.

 

[Finney Is Back]

i think Lamela is the type that needs to be playing week in week out to establish a bit of confidence, rhythm and consistency.

We seem to make lots of excuses for a player who cost us 26 million quid, perhaps because none of us really want to admit that our club have thrown that massive amount of money up the swanney. I think the truth of the matter though is that he is simply not a good enough player to be starting for Spurs, he is horribly one footed, doesn't seem to be able to receive the ball on the run, is easily pushed off the ball and surrenders a lot of possession. He is now the weakest player in our first 11 and therefore we should be looking to upgrade this summer.

 

[indianspur]

We seem to make lots of excuses for a player who cost us 26 million quid, perhaps because none of us really want to admit that our club have thrown that massive amount of money up the swanney. I think the truth of the matter though is that he is simply not a good enough player to be starting for Spurs, he is horribly one footed, doesn't seem to be able to receive the ball on the run, is easily pushed off the ball and surrenders a lot of possession. He is now the weakest player in our first 11 and therefore we should be looking to upgrade this summer.

of course he has not proven to be a 26 mill pound player, but he has shown glimpses of ability amongst all the bad play

i dont want to make excuses, but i would like to give him one more season.

 

[Maltese Falcon]

of course he has not proven to be a 26 mill pound player, but he has shown glimpses of ability amongst all the bad play

i dont want to make excuses, but i would like to give him one more season.

Just for curiosity, would you be willing to give Paulinho another season for the same reason?

 

[Raziel]

Lamela, Paulinho, Soldado need to be moved on, and realistically, moved on away from the PL.

2 years in, and there are only glimpses, yes they are all actually good footballers (there is a reason we paid stupid money for them), that said, for whatever reasons/excuses you can come up with, they haven't been able to translate their ability to the PL game.

Both for the club, and the players (a 3rd poor season could destroy any remnants of a career for at minimum Paulinho/Soldado), let them go, get their wages off the bill, get them to leagues they are suited to, and wish them all the best .. Lamela/Soldado for me tried .. would like to see them get something out of their careers outside of England.

 

[braineclipse]

We seem to make lots of excuses for a player who cost us 26 million quid, perhaps because none of us really want to admit that our club have thrown that massive amount of money up the swanney. I think the truth of the matter though is that he is simply not a good enough player to be starting for Spurs, he is horribly one footed, doesn't seem to be able to receive the ball on the run, is easily pushed off the ball and surrenders a lot of possession. He is now the weakest player in our first 11 and therefore we should be looking to upgrade this summer.

At this point he's our player, whatever he cost when we signed him. He's not on massive wages from what I've seen reported.

For me it's less about what we signed him for and more about what we could get for him if we sold him that should influence if we sell him or keep him.

I also think it's less about making excuses and more about being a bit patient with a player that after all only turned 23 in March and still doesn't have a full season's worth of PL starts under his belt. For comparison Pritchard turns 23 in May, if he next season as a season similar to Lamela's this year do we give up on him too? I would say that probably depends on what kinds of offers (potentially) come in, but in general I would be in favour of being patient as both have shown real glimpses of quality and talent (albeit at a somewhat lower level).

 

[LCLC]

Just for curiosity, would you be willing to give Paulinho another season for the same reason?

I think that Lamela and Soldado both have a technique and style in their game that Paulinho doesn't.

Lamela's technique is poor but this is more due to a bad touch and vision - some of this will be remedied by confidence and this is what is currently holding him back. Soldado always shows nice touches -it' s just that he was a horrible fit for our team and also a very poor choice for this league considering what we spent.

With Paulinho he lacks a passing range, a first touch and consistently has moments which just aren't fitting for any Brazilain. He is a poor technical footballer with average physical attributes for this league. He also lacks heart and work rate

Lamela has something about him

 

[Maltese Falcon]

I think that Lamela and Soldado both have a technique and style in their game that Paulinho doesn't.

Lamela's technique is poor but this is more due to a bad touch and vision - some of this will be remedied by confidence and this is what is currently holding him back. Soldado always shows nice touches -it' s just that he was a horrible fit for our team and also a very poor choice for this league considering what we spent.

With Paulinho he lacks a passing range, a first touch and consistently has moments which just aren't fitting for any Brazilain. He is a poor technical footballer with average physical attributes for this league. He also lacks heart and work rate

Lamela has something about him

It is these kinds of two weights, two measures arguments which honestly make my blood boil.

Seeing as people seems to love stats so much...

Lamela - according to the official site - has 4 goals and 7 assists from 28 games with a shooting accuracy of 81% and a passing accuracy of also 81%

Paulinhi has played exactly half of those game and has 2 goals and 4 assists (i.e. better than half of Lamela's) and a shooting accuracy of 93% and a passing accuracy of 83%.

When I saw you say that one of them lacks "a passing range, a first touch and consistently has moments that just aren't fitting" I had to re-read it again because it was the perfect encapsulation of Lamela's game yesterday. I honestly would have loved to see the reaction on this board if Paulinho had a nightmare even half of the scale of Lamela's game yesterday; you would have murdered. But Lamela will be remedied by confidence.

I don;t know how old you are but these are exactly the same apologetic excuses that used to be done for Rebrov and Postiga - both players who were obviously hopeless but which people were unwilling to admit, presumably because they had invested too much emotional attachment with the players.

I can understand anyone coming and saying that both Paulinho and Lamela have been grossly underwhelming and should be cut loose while they still have a resale value.

But to say that Paulinho is hopeless but that Lamela has a technique - based on his league performances in a Spurs shirt - is bordering on the ridiculous

 

[Bedfordspurs]

lamellas redeaming feature has been he puts a shift in... That's it really and simply isn't good enough for a team with top 4 aspirations.

Our wide players have to offer more than purely hard work otherwise we will simply not improve