Not singling you out for this as I mentioned it in another thread, but why should we drop our best attacking player and second highest scorer just because he can't dominate games like Modric used to? There's a simple reason he can't, because he isn't as good as him and probably never will be.
I do not understand why Lamela gets more slack when he has a bad game or gets brushed off the ball and does 50 stepovers but delivers very little. He still hasn't looked like scoring a league goal for Spurs. Even when Eriksen has a quiet game, he still creates openings and looks more threatening than most.
First off, no worries at all mate, it's an absolutely valid response to my post and I would never have taken it in ay other way. Appreciate the validation though...
I can only express a personal opinion in counter-point.
Until Eriksen can be more of presence on the game or in it, Lamela should be given full charge of playmaking.
I look at Eriksen and see him as someone with the potential of a younger Pirlo combined with some David Silva. He has never been a Modric type for me, alas...if he was, this would not bean issue at all!!!! At the moment he registers slightly higher than Stephane Dalmat; a wonderful talent who is currently far too enigmatic , seems easily brushed out/forced out of a game and could end up at a Villa.
Essentially, it is currently a straight fight between Kane and Eriksen for the 10 spot. Kane is Teddy-esque. I think he is currently able to move in concert with Lamela and Soldado better than Eriksen, who appears too often to get into the same congestion areas as Lamela.
The only other way around it would be to play Eriksen off the right and bank on Kane having the positional intelligence to make sure that Lamela and Eriksen are working in different 'inside' areas of the pitch whilst allowing Harry to drop off and thread through balls to Soldado/trade-off with any one of those three. But I am loathe to drop Chadli as he is getting on the end of things, scoring and again, knows where to move in this system.
I find Lamela's step-over stuff tedious too, and pray for him to be more direct, swift even. To my eyes, this happens when he is not playing with Eriksen. I have hopes that down the line the manager can find a way to make them work together (a lot will depend on whether he replaces Capoue and gets a fit Walker again) but right here, right now, I'd keep Eriksen on the bench. It might make him step up??
In short, when I look at Eriksen, I see a player who provides some niceties but is generally average-to-OK. When I look at Lamela, I see a player who has something special which just needs a little more time and a little more space.
Anyway, we shall see, and again, it's a tough issue for sure.
