It’s no secret that this Spurs team are getting fitter and since returning to the team, Erik Lamela has looked noticeably more energetic and strong.
Lamela may not have played particularly well in the 2-1 victory over Arsenal last weekend but he worked hard and threw himself into tackles. This is progress for a youngster who looked frail, defensively unaware and incredibly easy to knock off the ball when he first arrived at White Hart Lane.
His performance against Liverpool was even more encouraging. Providing the assist for Harry Kane’s goal, Lamela also ran further than any other player on the pitch.
Erik Lamela ran furthest (12.13 km) & made the most tackles (6) on either team, creating 3 chances & an assist. #thfc pic.twitter.com/tU52ftYFo3
— Talking THFC (@TalkingTHFC) February 10, 2015
Yet is it enough? For a player that Tottenham paid so much for, his progress is frustratingly slow. Fellow attacking midfielders such as Christian Eriksen and Nacer Chadli have found their feet earlier, despite costing much less and arriving at the same time.
Getting stronger and fitter will certainly aid the development of a player whose skill is not in question, but it’s currently his decision making that lets him down. Constantly cutting inside makes Lamela’s game predictable, as he runs into crowded areas and results in him constantly giving away possession.
Are you happy with Lamela’s progress, or are his performances not good enough?
Agreed that Lamela is working hard and his strength on the ball is more obvious! His attitude is obviously in the right place which is a good starting point!
His decision making is poor sometimes, as summed up by a 3 on 2 break last night where he chose to go out wide rather than play an easier ball inside to Ryan Mason. I was at the game and Mason gave him a serious lashing for it.
The major thing I cannot understand with Lamela is this: People should look to at the Youtube collage of Lamelas, as I did when we signed him, and it will show you a Bale-esque player cutting in from wide for Roma, creating space and unleashing shots from outside the area, a lot of which he scored from..and akin to the one he scored at the lane a few weeks ago. The thing is…so many times last night he beat a player coming inside..20-25 yards out central but tried to play a tight 1-2 or through ball that were near impossible.. So WhY isnt he shooting in those areas for us when that seemed to be his main forte for Roma!?!?!?
MY THOUGHTS EXACTLT.HE WAS FOR ME THE WORST SPURS PLAYER.I ALSO SAW FILMS OF HIM WHEN HE WAS A TEENAGER WITH TREMENDOUS TALENT.DEMBELE ALSO DIDNT COMPLETE HES RUNS,BUT TODAY HE IS FAR MORE EFFECTIVE AS HIS FINAL PASS IS A DANGER TO THE OTHER TEAM/IF DEMBELE CAN DO IT,SO SHOULD LAMELA.YEARS AGO CHELSEA INTRODUCED A 16 YEAR OLD AGAINST SPURS.(I THINK IT WAS HUDSON)HE RAN RINGS AROUND US.SPURS HAVE ENOUGH TALENTED TEENAGERS TO GIVE THEM A RUN.ALSO MST BE PROMISING PLAYER IN THIS GROUP INSTEAD OF SOLDADO.
I think he will shine in the future.the kid needs time remember that he still young and come from deferent culture with deferent footboll.and I think when you play him in deferent position he is not be able to proform all the time.just look at the dembele now when he Playes in his position how much good,when every one want him to go.young players need some help and time,when levy changes coaches very year.come on u Spurs
People for get it took modders 2/3 seasons to come good! Same with Bale, Lamela has moved from Argentina to Italy and then London, he’s still a very young man, this is his first proper season due to injury last year, he’s coming on well, getting stuck in and working hard, he is coming good, not his fault we paid the fee we did.
Maybe he will become a great player in a couple of years, but when paying £32 million he needs to be great immediately.
Give the guy a break FFS. This is Erik’s first relatively injury free season and as pj said in his comments, it took Modric almost 3 seasons before he shone through and Bale was on his way out of the club after 3 terrible seasons before luck more than judgement on Redknapps part saw Bale transform into a super winger. Some were even calling him a jinks for the length of time we went without a win with him in the team. Sure, the club dished out £30M for Lamela but that’s not his fault, he didn’t demand that Spurs pay that much for him. The kid has undoubted talent and he will shine. Already we see that he isn’t afraid to work and get stuck in, did any of you ever see Bale do that. In my eye’s at least, he is showing encouraging signs and yes, I would like to see him take more shots but if those shots are wayward and at the expense of setting up a player in a better position, what’s the betting that he will be called Andros Townsend the 2nd? Leave the Lamela bashing alone and get behind the boy because should he go to another level and reach hero status, you know the famous Spanish thieves will be knocking down Levy’s door.
This seems to be getting at a player for the sake of it. He may have arrived in the same transfer window as Chadli and Eriksen, but then they played for many months longer because the injured and recovering Lamella was out for much of his first season at Spurs. He arrived as a kid speaking no English for quite some time. Why don’t you treat players as if they are people? They haven’t failed because they don’t live up to someone else’s unrealistic notions, and as they are never going to satisfy fickle fans.
Lamela’s playing has improved this season along with the playing of a number of other Spurs players who weren’t quite doing it under the new leadership that arrived in July and in a World Cup summer. I don’t read the football websites much anymore because despite recent months of fine Spurs’ play I’ll bet there have been the usual suspects on websites whining about Levy, tactics, Capoue, Mason, Dier, Rose, not buying players in January, (as here) Lamela, Soldado, Adebayor, the new stadium, insisting preseason and early season that Kane was bog-standard and should be shipped out, let him play for Ireland not England, Vorm in goal, Vertonghen going to leave last January, Lloris then or this summer for Man Utd or Barcelona, bloody Fazio, Stambouli too, and Townsend, and on and on and on. There’s always something wrong, and it’s why so many supporters don’t read what they don’t need to read.
I dont remember Bale exactly lighting the world on fire at Spurs when he first went into the team. EL is young, working hard, improving and becoming more confident. Let him grow and develop and what was paid for him is irrelevant; if he comes good (as I think he will), he will be a bargain.