All Lamela's touches from the Hull game: http://www.thetottenhamway.com/2014...ressive-individual-highlights-tottenham-hull/ I can see from that why I thought he had a fairly decent game. He rarely lost possession, made some fairly simple but very effective passes (like the one at 18 secs in - nothing tricky about it just effective and positive), got a decent shot off, used his body well to shield the ball/win free kicks and even had the maturity and sense to keep the ball in the corner well at the end...I know it's not much but a real improvement and if he can sort out the simple side of the game maybe those odd flicks and tricks will become more useful and successful and then more dangerous. Talking of good decision-making, though, I'm reminded of one of the key components of my dilemma for how to pick a starting 11 - I really do like Ryan Mason. Now whether he's really top Premiership material is yet to be seen. To be honest he doesn't look all that technically superb. BUT he just seems to have a very good, very positive footballing brain. He sees good passes, he makes himself available, he seems to know when to pass and when to have a crack at goal, he's not bad out of possession (I swear 90% of being useful defensively is just getting into the right positions by basically running about a bit). Question is - is he good enough going forward to squeeze out an Eriksen or a Lamela or a Chadli? Or is he defensively sound enough to replace Capoue or, if he was in the team, Bentaleb or Stambouli? It's really hard to see the answer to any of those questions being yes. But I might be wrong. I might need to start a new thread on this. Cos now I've got Eriksen, Chadli, Lennon and Mason as must-starts. Hang on - how come we're total crap and I can't work out who to leave out of a starting 11 cos I want to fit so many players into the team? Is this what optimism feels like? Or maybe I'm realising that our best hope is to play 472 and hope no one notices. Against a weaker team at home could we just have a midfield of the four I mentioned above? Mason and Eriksen as our midfield 2?! I have a very stupid, very Spursy desire to see it happen. I just think they both have a sort of Modric-like air of tidiness to them but with possibly more of a goal threat.
Great thoughtful and thought provoking post Lenny, you should start more threads. Lamella reminds me of Bale, no hang on, hear me out, in the sense that his early days with us as a Jonah were marked with the odd run that kept many of us interested in his potential. Lamella is clearly growing in terms of getting used to the PL and slowly becoming a significant player. I agree with you on Mason Lenny it is hard to not like his attitude and often with 'efficient' players ,who do not have an array of 'tricks' in their bag, you have to follow the game closely to see the contribution he makes. Spurs need players like this as we are prone to buying 'stars' who have some odd silky moves. In Lamella & Mason we have the opposite ends of the footballing spectrum and teams need variety so L & M could indeed be a good pairing for the future.
I think that Lamela's best position is probably as either a striker in a pairing or in behind someone who can play the lone role well. He often beats players and then comes up against more of them and is forced to either try to beat them too, cut back or lay it off. I think that his first instinct is to try to take them on and he ends up losing the ball quite a bit by doing so. Starting him in a role that would leave him with less men to beat would eliminate some of the problem. He's quite deft at picking out a through ball and finding players that are running into space and this would also be more dangerous. His shots are decent and he's willing to have a go, he used to score a few with his head for Roma and players like to foul him, too. His vastly improved workrate would help to put pressure on sides when they're in possession and he's shown a lot of willing to track back, despite tackling not being one of his strengths. The main problem with this? A whole bunch of our players seem to be best suited for that position, in various slightly different roles and we don't have the right balance to the side yet. Playing in slightly behind another striker seems to be Harry Kane's forte, Eriksen appears to want to play there and there are arguments for Chadli and others, too. Nobody wants to be the midfield playmaker, our wide roles are completely up for grabs our defence is all over the place and we've tried about five players in holding roles. I think that we've got a fairly talented squad and that some of our players are capable of becoming very, very good, but that the squad's unbalanced and the teams selected have been, too. Eriksen showed what he could do when the midfield's stretched and more open, but does he have enough defensive nous to play in the middle? Do any of our other options in that position have the ability to pick a pass well enough, if he doesn't?
We have a curious mix of many players who want to play in a striker pairing or as a 10 behind the front man, and some players like Paulinho who seem to be suited for nothing at all. After the Hull game I harbour hope for Eriksen following the Modric path and becoming an effective player from a central, perhaps slightly deeper role where he can have as many touches of the ball as possible. I'd love to see a midfield 3 of Stambouli or Capoue, Mason and Eriksen with two proper wingers and Kane ahead of them. Or once we have fit fullbacks on both sides again for the width, a diamond with Lamela behind two strikers and those 3 midfielders behind them. Wherever it comes from though, width is key.
Two's company, three's a crowd out of Chadli, Eriksen and Lamela. It was notable how good both the latter looked against Hull. The Lamela compilation was impressive. It made me think the Who Scores team of the week thing wasn't just a fluke. Of course, the real reason for the good displays may have been Hull a man short, so that 472 may be the best plan.
Lamela’s looking more and more like a big player in the making. The way he’s turned a number of our games is really impressive. Let’s see what happens when he finally gets one in the PL, though. Since you mentioned Lamela and Mason, how about Dembele and Eriksen? Dembele might offer a little useful guidance to players who try to crunch Eriksen, while Eriksen, maybe along with Lamela, would do the most to counteract Dembele’s tendency to get the ball forward too slowly.
