I liked Erik Lamela before it was cool

[Bonsaiboy]

Townsend was so good against Saudi Sportswashing Machine that not playing him yesterday you see as some real injustice by Poch. But Lamela was "decent" yesterday? Even apart from the goal, which was really nice, I thought Lamela was significantly better against Burnley than Townsend was against Saudi Sportswashing Machine.

I'm glad you realize that you have your own biases about Lamela instead of just shouting about the perceived biases in others.

We played better as a team and Townsend was a big part of that, and against Everton we played better as team until Lamela came on. Really, I've said all I have to say on Lamela - I REALLY DO HOPE I AM WRONG - but in my opinion he was a waste of money and will never come good and I'd sell him January.

I've said all I have to say on Lamela. I can see who he is as a player and I don't rate him whatsoever (I'm sure he's a great lad btw) and I stake my reputation as an assessor of players on Lamela being a duffer who will never make a successful premier league footballer, and I reserve the right to rub the noses in it to all those who said the opposite

 

[Jurgen the German]

Glad to see him finally get a league goal. I've been critical of him for most of the season, deservedly so IMO but he has more upside than Lennon and Townsend. More of the same please, he's got the ability to do so. I would like to see him get in the kind of positions Eriksen does in and around the box, prefarably not bumping into to each other.

 

[Jurgen the German]

On a completely different note, what's with the short sleeve shirt and gloves fad? I get that your hands get hold, but do you no feel the cold on your arms? :lol: gloves should be banned after the age of 15. I can count on one hand the number of times I have played football and felt cold after 5 minutes. Could never understand Pav and Arshavin wearing gloves, they are from Russia FFS :ross:

 

[africanspurs]

Not jumping in the Townsend/Lamela debate .. but to your piece AS

I actually think Lamela can beat 1 or 2 players quite comfortably, Burnley's LB had nightmares with him. Lamela's problem is he tries to take on 3 or 4 and runs into a wall, if he stays wide and can be isolated against a single player, I think he will beat that player comfortably most times.

completely re-writing history now. And i am surprised more people are not pulling you up on it

He isnt trying to beat 3 or 4 people, that would mean or indicate one of two things

1.) he is stupid by football terms or verges on very bad decision making
2. he had been doing that (dribbling) consistently and long enough for that to be something that managers have taken into account and asked their players to double / triple/ quadruple up on him

i dont believe either of the above to be true.

Apologies if i sound confrontational but i have this feeling of his it used to be when i felt people were literally making up stuff about on the spot about redknapp just to suit their purpose. i know thats NOT what you are doing but the rationale as to why he is ineffective beating people on the wing seems tailor made to show him as this superhuman dribbling machine who only can be stopped by 3 or 4 people

i think that is COMPLETELY untrue on the evidence of what we have seen in the total 18 months over all

You have to understand that after the vitriol i received after i gave my critique 3 games in..i did quite a lot of lamela watching ...and this season the few games i have seen i havent seen much to support your theory that he will comfortably beat 1 or 2 people most times

this guy has had it tough getting round people down the flank so much that i was certain people knew this almost like a skill that he was slowly adapting to the league. Not something that he has now and just cant do cause he is being crowded out by 3 or 4 players

so you know i dont even know ANYONE right now in our league that commands that kind of attention when they have the ball, save for alexis sanchez and hazard..and only after they have already beaten 1 or 2 players

infact what you just said actually makes it sound like he is on par with those two

i dont think its true and i think you are gravely mistaken

All that this is going to do is put a microscope on anything and everything he attempts as a dribbler to beat his man

isolating him against the full back is definitely a way to help him REALLY threaten the opposition , i do agree with that

as BE said it boils down to his team mates and him utilising the space around...something which he does now anyway.

but i dont know how you can be sure he is a lethal dribbler

we'll see in the next game

the ironic thing is that i actually think he is great with the ball at his feet, i also think he has quick feet and like i said / agreed with you above .. above we would see different results if we served him the ball in the right situations. I just cant believe that we are wiping the slate clean after one game and re-packaging it as "he can beat 1 or even 2 people quite comfortable regularly...its just when its 3 or 4 that he struggle"

 

[africanspurs]

I do think Townsend is a good player, not quite suited to us perhaps and he really needs to improve quickly. But not a bad player by any standard for me.

Problem for me with his shooting is that too often he ends up taking too many touches and it's obvious that a shot is coming. His touch lets him down or he's too head down and easy to read and so even though he has a good shot too often it's blocked or rushed because he's being closed down.

Lamela's goal yesterday: He does take quite a few touches, but he's moving into a good area and finding space. He's looking up to see what's happening around him, if there was a run I think he spots it, he takes the shot with space to actually get it on goal with purpose (like he did with his similar shot). It's not as easy for the defenders to know what's happening and stop it.



Agreed. It's about space and movement. Finding Lamela in space closer to the box than we've previously managed and having movement around him.

Walker provides a ton of movement, as does Kane and Eriksen. I was less impressed with Ade in that regard previously this season (but let's not go there).

This was also only the second game against lower half opposition where Mason and Bentaleb started. The first was Palace and we looked dead on our feet, in this one Bentaleb was a bit meh by his high standards, but we're better at finding the right passes to creative players like Lamela with the two of them instead of Capoue, Dembele, Paulinho etc.

agreed on pretty much everything here except the idea that townsend needs to improve. Every one needs to improve but as he is right now i think he is an amazing level for a squad player for a team in our position

i wont get behind the idea that lamela has already consistently demonstrated his dribbling attributes so much so that teams are scared of him to the tune of more than 2 players

or that he has been beating his man / men consistently that people will just up and say "he can beat 1 or 2 men comfortably"

desperately cant wait for the next game now. i want to see the mass space around the pitch when lamela is jumped on by A third to nearly half the outfield players of the opposition..or failing that him taking apart his man or 2 men when in isolation on the regular

i mean if either of those things were happening dont you think there would be more people agreeing that the 30 million had arrived much sooner?

 

[GrimsbyYid]

This debate is bizarre. Townsend was atrocious against Saudi Sportswashing Machine like he is pretty much every game, because, quite simply, he just isn't very good. And we'll sell him in January. And he'll continue to have a bang average career. Lamela has far more ability! Produces FAR more often, and works infinitely harder. Not saying he's "there" yet, but the difference is night and day.

 

[africanspurs]

This debate is bizarre. Townsend was atrocious against Saudi Sportswashing Machine like he is pretty much every game, because, quite simply, he just isn't very good. And we'll sell him in January. And he'll continue to have a bang average career. Lamela has far more ability! Produces FAR more often, and works infinitely harder. Not saying he's "there" yet, but the difference is night and day.

Produces "FAR" more? and often? :rio:

okay this isnt going to go anyway , i'll accept that there are people that think lamela has been playing well in most games if not every game but i am not one of them that think he has consistently played well in most games

i can only say that its a fresh start for me on the lamela watch. maybe i have been missing all these dribblez and vast contributions on the attacking end........i didnt know we were that close on a return on our investment but i am happy to be proved wrong in this second half of the season.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Produces "FAR" more? and often? :rio:

okay this isnt going to go anyway , i'll accept that there are people that think lamela has been playing well in most games if not every game but i am not one of them that think he has consistently played well in most games

i can only say that its a fresh start for me on the lamela watch. maybe i have been missing all these dribblez and vast contributions on the attacking end........i didnt know we were that close on a return on our investment but i am happy to be proved wrong in this second half of the season.

There seems to be a swing between rose tinted glasses and dark dark shades that miss everything.... You can only sit in one or the other camp in this thread!!!

Unfortunately I'm with you in that he has played well in so e league games but not many. Yesterday, Sunderland away and QPR too. Basically the poorer sides but at least he played well

There are lots of comments about how well he dribbles and beats a man but generally I see him dribble and pretty much run into his man. He also doesn't know how to, or when to pass a lot of the time

But... Yesterday after what I thought was an iffy start he played really well and was involved in plenty of good things. He needs more of those performances to convince me and plenty others... But again some are happy with what he has done so far. It's a difference if opinions and I welcome the debate

What I can say is I don't think anyone fan wise wants him to fail and he does get backed a lot by most of the fans I see, so he has time still. Play like yesterday and he will get plenty more backing

 

[The egyptian]

Every one here have talked about his dribbling ability. However, I think what will affect his game- if he improves- is shooting. Sucess brings sucess, and if he manged to score frequently, players would try to close to him and taht help his passing and so on. Passing will bring space to dribbling. Actually one of Bale's greatest benfit to us in his last season here that other teams were afraid to attack or play wide against us. I am not comparing Lamela to Bale, but I see that once he start to score his whole game will improve.

 

[Robbo]

I'm out of popcorn.

 

[Yiddo]

Apart from QPR and Burnley he has been below average IMO. He needs to do a lot more than score a goal to win me over.

 

[LutonSpurs]

Haha. Townsend and Lamela have shown about the same amount of quality going forward this season, albeit Townsend has played less but Lamela has far out done him in discipline and tracking back and sheer fight. Townsend doesn't track back very well. Lamela is physically stronger and can make interceptions and tackle. I do not think there is ahuge gap between them in performances but in potential and overall value to a "team" Lamela is alot better.

 

[NWND]

Just going back to Lamela's dribbling ability, he has been struggling to beat 1 or 2 players this season, but its all down to when and how he gets the ball. Even isolated against a defender, unless you have lightning acceleration and pace like Lennon, it is still difficult to get buy a settled top-class defender when he isn't on the back-foot. Any player would find this difficult. Even Bale rarely managed it from a standing start against a set defender.

Basically Lamela is great against 1, or even 2 or more backtracking defenders who aren't set where he can use his quick feet to move the ball quickly past them. So its about getting the ball to him quickly, getting the ball to his feet (not pinged into his chest etc) and getting it to him in the right areas.

Also, Lamela's dribbling wasn't ever the be all and end all of his game, he had a few eye-catching dribbles at Roma that made it onto YouTube and people assumed he was another Ginola. I compare him a lot more to Robbie Keane in style and ability. He works very hard, he seems a very instinctive player, he has some mad-skills but they're not consistent in their delivery, but he keeps bouncing back and trying the spectacular.

Africanspurs thinks he will be a very effective 'role-player' in the future and that's how I see him. He was a role-player at Roma too. He played off Totti, he made those runs all game and Totti just kept playing him in to threatening areas where he'd hurt the opposition with his goals, crosses and passes. He was the Keane to Totti's Berbatov.

Unfortunately, we don't have a Totti, but it wasn't a surprise for me that when we moved Eriksen centrally that Lamela had his most effective game for a while. Lamela needs a quality play-maker near him in the game to shine. I'm hoping we can build Eriksen into our Totti and I think we'll see Lamela come out of his shell more and more if we do.

 

[NWND]

On a completely different note, what's with the short sleeve shirt and gloves fad? I get that your hands get hold, but do you no feel the cold on your arms? :lol: gloves should be banned after the age of 15. I can count on one hand the number of times I have played football and felt cold after 5 minutes. Could never understand Pav and Arshavin wearing gloves, they are from Russia FFS :ross:

Haha yeah, I always wondered why Pav wore gloves. I was thinking WTF, you probably had to play in minus 15 back home!

 

[THFC6061]

Erik Lamela makes Garth Crooks' Team of the Week

He threatened to score from the right hand side of the pitch earlier in the game and Burnley didn't heed the warning signs. When he tried it a second time the Clarets paid the price as the ball flew past Tom Heaton in the Burnley goal.

Not a bad way to open your Premier League account but frankly a player with Erik Lamela's talent should be scoring more goals than the occasional one or two.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/30571411

 

[indianspur]

I've been banging on about this for yonks, look where he receives the ball. That's what we should be doing more and more, keep him out as wide as possible and feed him quick balls so he can isolate a full back and has the time and space to cut in and do damage like that. Right now in his development, its all he should be focused on.

 

[benp]

I don't think Lamela has chosen in the past to run into 4 defenders. However, he -has- done it, a lot in the past. Enough for me to think bad decision making on the dribble could be one of his traits, like I think poor decision making is one of Townsend's strengths. He isn't getting quadruple teamed - early on we had a lot of congestion on the edge of their area - lamela would dribble in, beat one or two and run into a brick wall of more. It used to drive me while and I can definitely see what the other poster is getting at. That didn't happen once against Burnley, which was awesome. In my opinion, part of the reason for that was Walker down the outside (this was so important), he's settling a little, the attacking side of our team looks like they know what they are trying to do, and if you're a young bloke just finding his feet, i imagine no one will ******* you out of the current lineup on the field, or at least the attacking 4 (mason might, he seems feisty).

All in all, Lamela hasn't really upskilled much. It's more Poch deserving credit for his improved performance in the last game. Great goal!

 

[papaspur]

wow....

 

[LCLC]

Really happy for Lamela scoring his first ever league goal for us. But was a bit disappointed by the celebrations after that. Felt the players were too slow to celebrate with Lamela. Mason was the only one who really celebrated with Lamela while most of the players were too casual. Some were even just walked to him. Compared this to the wild celebrations when Soldado scored against Everton. Maybe Lamela are not very popular among the other players now.

We were at home and had just regained the lead after conceding a goal not long before to a lowly club. The defenders all went and had a discussion amongst themselves and two players went and had a chat to poch. I don't think there is too much thete to read into. The game did not have the same intensity and sometimes you want to stay in the zone and focused once we we got back on track

 

[LCLC]

You're not trying to redress any balance though are you? You came into the Lamela thread after he's scored, played his best game for Spurs in order to pretty much claim the guy can't even play football and claim that Townsend, a guy who has not even come close to having a game in the PL for Spurs like Lamela did yesterday, is a superior player in almost every respect and that not only that, that he has technique that Lamela can't emulate.

Basically, you're just being a dingdong.

Calm down mate. Lamela had a good first half. He wasn't running the game and only managed to beat his fullback once. It was his most complete performance of the season but I cAn think of several games last year when townsend was our best attaxking threat and the game went through him. Everytjimg went through kane and erisken on sat and it was nice to see Lamela keep it simple and assist the team.

Your right to say people shouldn't jump all over him after what was a good performance, but it's not absurd to say townsend has been deserving of a start over him