I liked Erik Lamela before it was cool

[Bedfordspurs]

Trying to remember the first half, there were at least two moves from Lamela where he helped open up palarse. One which ended in Soldado blazing over - Lamela cut in from the wing committing 3 defenders, then finding Davies in space on the other wing. Davies crossed it, slightly behind Soldado, who couldnt keep the shot down. Had he done so, many would be crowing over Lamela. It was probably our best chance of the half to score.

The other move that I can remember, at the end of the half Lamela played some passes and got to the bye line in the box and pulled the ball across the face of goal. He was yards onside but wrongly called off for some strange reason.

Who did create more or better chances first half? If unsure,re-watch the first half. Although Palace played well and frustrated us we were playing okay for the final 25 of the first half.

But the team managed two shots on target the whole game - and he is part of the team!

He does not suit the team at the moment and when he plays we look ****. Am I the only one who sees that?

 

[Jordinho]

But the team managed two shots on target the whole game - and he is part of the team!

He does not suit the team at the moment and when he plays we look ****. Am I the only one who sees that?

I don't think you're the only one. There is far more complaining about excuses going on that actual excuse making.

 

[braineclipse]

But the team managed two shots on target the whole game - and he is part of the team!

He does not suit the team at the moment and when he plays we look ****. Am I the only one who sees that?

We didn't look **** against Chelsea. We didn't look **** against Arsenal. He played well in both those games I thought.

We've been fairly poor in a lot of games, Lamela has played a lot of games. We've looked good in some games, Lamela has played in several of them.

 

[SpurMeUp]

Personally I think if we'd kept him on, we'd have had a better chance of winning. Poch maybe needed to emphasise to Lamela (and others) that reversing the ball back out wide after committing men centrally might work to unlock them. Chadli didn't offer anything more that was for sure.

 

[braineclipse]

Personally I think if we'd kept him on, we'd have had a better chance of winning. Poch maybe needed to emphasise to Lamela (and others) that reversing the ball back out wide after committing men centrally might work to unlock them. Chadli didn't offer anything more that was for sure.

Problem was that Dier was offering nothing going forward. Lamela was fairly isolated and the movement around him was limited.

I was actually hoping Poch would put Lennon on at right back, would have been risky, but at least we would have some attacking intent from the full back.

 

[braineclipse]

Trying to remember the first half, there were at least two moves from Lamela where he helped open up palarse. One which ended in Soldado blazing over - Lamela cut in from the wing committing 3 defenders, then finding Davies in space on the other wing. Davies crossed it, slightly behind Soldado, who couldnt keep the shot down. Had he done so, many would be crowing over Lamela. It was probably our best chance of the half to score.

The other move that I can remember, at the end of the half Lamela played some passes and got to the bye line in the box and pulled the ball across the face of goal. He was yards onside but wrongly called off for some strange reason.

Who did create more or better chances first half? If unsure,re-watch the first half. Although Palace played well and frustrated us we were playing okay for the final 25 of the first half.

Pass was played to Lamela initially, but he let it run past him to Soldado who then reversed it to Lamela who was yards onside. But I think Soldado was offside when the initial pass was played and offside was the right call.

 

[SpurMeUp]

Problem was that Dier was offering nothing going forward. Lamela was fairly isolated and the movement around him was limited.

I was actually hoping Poch would put Lennon on at right back, would have been risky, but at least we would have some attacking intent from the full back.

It would have been a brave more. But more effective than the change that was made. Even though we looked leggy, there was some movement, always someone running out wide first half. Lamela maybe needed to recycle the ball after drawing defenders in, say to a midfielder who could then find the wide man in space with a quick pass. At the moment, Lamela isn't always able to get a pass off after dribbling the ball. That is why he's frustrating. He needs to try a little less to make a wonder run, pause his run and get a pass off. We saw Lennon develop once, when he'd slow down, pause then hit his cross.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

We didn't look **** against Chelsea. We didn't look **** against Arsenal. He played well in both those games I thought.

We've been fairly poor in a lot of games, Lamela has played a lot of games. We've looked good in some games, Lamela has playedseveral of them.

I disagree about chelsea massively. I thought we looled good for twenty minutes and then looked like a pratty side with mo chances to score

 

[braineclipse]

I disagree about chelsea massively. I thought we looled good for twenty minutes and then looked like a pratty side with mo chances to score

Really? We didn't look much like scoring after going two goals down away to a Mourinho managed Chelsea?

Do you have any comment to the overall point I was making?

Edit: On the Chelsea game. I wonder what the reaction had been if it was Lamela that had completely left Hazard like that for the opener instead of Lennon...

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Really? We didn't look much like scoring after going two goals down away to a Mourinho managed Chelsea?

Do you have any comment to the overall point I was making?

Edit: On the Chelsea game. I wonder what the reaction had been if it was Lamela that had completely left Hazard like that for the opener instead of Lennon...

Lennon got criticised by plenty from what I read

Your point was that we played well vs chelsea and arsenal. I do t think we did vs chelsea. I thought they let us have the ball as they knew we had no threat

What games have we looked good in and won (so actually penetrated the opposition goal) that Lamella has played in?

We played well at Sunderland and didn't win. He played well that day

 

[lurker of old]

Yesterday Lamela looked pedestrian and predictable. He never goes outside, only inside. For the first time yesterday I felt that he is candyfloss. Not tough enough for this league, not skilful enough to be a star. All very depressing :-(

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Yesterday Lamela looked pedestrian and predictable. He never goes outside, only inside. For the first time yesterday I felt that he is candyfloss. Not tough enough for this league, not skilful enough to be a star. All very depressing :-(

My view exactly

I'm wanting to know when Lamella has played well

 

[braineclipse]

Lennon got criticised by plenty from what I read

Your point was that we played well vs chelsea and arsenal. I do t think we did vs chelsea. I thought they let us have the ball as they knew we had no threat

What games have we looked good in and won (so actually penetrated the opposition goal) that Lamella has played in?

We played well at Sunderland and didn't win. He played well that day

Arsenal, Chelsea, QPR and Sunderland at least.

Look at the shots stats for our game against Chelsea compared to Saudi Sportswashing Machine's win. Yet, if only we could be like Saudi Sportswashing Machine...

How many games this season have we played well without Lamela? Several times when he's come off I've felt that we've lost attacking momentum rather than gained it. He was poor yesterday, but we didn't play any better without him. That makes me think perhaps it wasn't his fault that we weren't playing well. And despite not playing well, like SpurMeUp said on the previous page a couple of the times when we did actually look dangerous in the first half he was involved.

With Lamela, like with creative players like Eriksen and Chadli, and like VdV, Bale and others before them we need to get them the ball in dangerous positions. Yesterday the promising high tempo passing we've seen from Bentaleb and Mason wasn't really there. The movement we've seen from Mason and Kane in previous games wasn't really there. We need that to click into place for our attacking creative players to flourish.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

In the 4 games you gave said 3 are away from home and we took 5 points from these games. Maybe he suits away games better as other than chelsea is agree we played well in thoaw games and they're werw all very different

how do you gt him in dangerous positions when he spend most of his game on top of ther players so has no space to operate in???

You could overlay his heat map with eriksen and Chadli an they would almost be identical

 

[braineclipse]

In the 4 games you gave said 3 are away from home and we took 5 points from these games. Maybe he suits away games better as other than chelsea is agree we played well in thoaw games and they're werw all very different

how do you gt him in dangerous positions when he spend most of his game on top of ther players so has no space to operate in???

You could overlay his heat map with eriksen and Chadli an they would almost be identical

In general we've looked better away from home and against teams like Everton that want to dominate possession where we could attack on the break. Not just Lamela, we as a team.

Quick passing, movement, overlapping full back...

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Agree with all of them however he doesn't so quick passing or movement very well so far

He takes 12 to them instead is 2 regularly

When he does pass quickly it normally results in something positive

 

[braineclipse]

Agree with all of them however he doesn't so quick passing or movement very well so far

He takes 12 to them instead is 2 regularly

When he does pass quickly it normally results in something positive

He has been playing it quicker more recently. He certainly did against Chelsea. Yesterday I don't think he found passes.

You do see him being a bit head down at times, but often you also see him looking up looking for options and not just finding them. Perhaps he needs to be more conservative at times, just play the simple ball retention pass instead of looking to take on 2-3 players or play the perfect ball. But when the movement is there from other players you quite often see the quicker passes from him these days I think.

 

[Rossi22]

Played well against Arsenal, got two assists.

 

[Finney Is Back]

Too right we didnt. He was 26m + bonuses. We'll get 20m ish back if we're selling him. Roma bought him for 11m.
This isn't bentley.

And Lamela played a sublime ball to Davies that put him in in the first half. Dont remember Chadli creating anything for him.

Sublime is going a bit far. It was an easy and obvious ball. I think every single player in our squad would've played that same ball.... probably even Townsend.

 

[Finney Is Back]

He was no worse than Chadli, Kane or Soldado today.
He at least was trying to make something happen.
Out best spell all game was the end of the first half.

He was terrible. I think I counted 8 times that he gave the ball away as well as conceding a stupid free kick close to the edge of our penalty area.