I just can't see how somebody looked at Lamela and decided he was worth 30 million. Roma must be pissing themselves. Didn't baldini have some links with Roma.....
Nice of Spurs to give Morpheus a deserved birthday present.It's certainly good that all three of our leading scorers got back on the sheet. We looked good overall, though how much of that is playing the worst team in the league right now is debatable. Paulinho, Lamela and Townsend keep changing my opinion about them, whether it's good or bad. This was the first time I've seen Paulinho look good in a deep lying role for a long time. Now I'm wondering why we didn't try him with Bentaleb more. Lamela had a mare in the first half. On the other hand, he was involved constantly, worked very hard, and eventually created the third goal. On the other hand, at the 28 minute mark my wife asked if Chadli was playing, and I realized he may have set a record for invisibility. Then he scored a brilliant goal. Fifth and sixth are there for the taking. The question is whether anybody wants to take them. Lamela is so bad at times it's tempting to call him simply a bad player. But I see a player who can do some things very well, namely assist and close down, and who, given confidence, could, I think, still be quite a good CAM. But he's not good on the right, and Townsend is better on the left. I wonder how much better we might be with a really good RM.
Baldini was DoF there before joining us so presumably he signed him for them too. 15 goals in his last season suggests that he was doing well there. It's looking like that was a one off season, or that he won't be repeating the season in England though. I personally thought he was alright today though. Krul made a good save to deny him when he probably should've scored but Chadli and Kane both could've sent him through on goal on other occasions but ignored him and opted to shoot from distance. Can't really complain about Chadlis as he scored, I suppose but I thought he was lively and looked a threat throughout. Needs to work on his passing though.
I would imagine we will have to keep Lamela for another season at least otherwise we would take a big loss. ATM he looks way off the required level, yes I agree with PNP's assessment. He must have looked far better than we have seen him at Spurs to have encouraged us to spend so much on him. Right now he doesn't look good enough for the Championship let alone the PL. Let's hope it's all down to confidence and age and next season he blossoms.
I think it's just you. Walker has undoubtedly had an up and down season, but he remains far and away our best option at RB.
Pleasant to see a Spurs win after Chelsea win the Premier League boring championship and Arsenal winning the Lucky team Championship (as usual). Please don't tell me Man United will play the Chelsea way next season...... What a season to forget,apart from Harry Kane of course! I am now awaiting the play off games.I do enjoy watching them.(Secretely hoping to see Bournemouth in the Premier next season....! ..and Spurs get a break from that Europa League!)
yeah and paulinho,capoue,chriches,soldado etc will be better once they get a season under there belts
They've had practically a whole season now and as far as I can see they haven't improved.I guess they are all laughing all the way to the bank!
I don't disagree so much as to say I've never seen a player have such excellent moments amidst a generally bad season. Lamela's problem may be that Eriksen is better at his best position. I'll grant Lamela didn't look particularly good there when he was tried, but he was brilliant in the Europa League early this year, and might have improved in the league with time.
Interesting analysis on MOTD2 last night of the Eriksen free kick, suggesting that the two players "offside" were affecting the goalkeepers decision making even if not "active" and therefore should have been called offside and the goal disallowed. Apart from finding such incidents difficult to describe and thus highlighting the problem with this stupid rule, I agree to a certain extent - but how much analysis did they give to the FAR more blatant Lampard incident away at ManC where he is clearly interfering with play but the goal also stood. The main problem is that it's just a rule which allows the refs to be subjective, and therefore the rule that allows them to be biased in ways we know they are all capable of. I'd much rather all such goals were disallowed (including ours) and have a simpler offside rule, not because there aren't good aspects of it, but because the officials aren't capable of implementing it fairly.
Speaking of motd2 when jason roberts was asked about harry kane scoring 30 he responded by asking where would spurs be without him...i have have heard a few pundits do this...but none have asked where united would be with out rooneys goals, chelsea without costas goals, arsenal without sanches goals, city without agueros goals etc. Its almost like we have no right.
This whole "what would x do if they didn't have y" argument is a complete load of bollocks! Most teams, in the entire world of football, have a player who's name is first on the team-sheet, and without whom the team plays less effectively. Those who scoff, "you only play well because you have Harry Kane!" Yeah, too ****ing right we do! That's because he's our best player, dickheads!
AND its not as if without Harry Kane we would play with 10 men is it? We'd have another player on the pitch to replace him, contributing (hopefully) They did it with Bale too. Where would Spurs be without Bale, certainly not 5th. Season after he leaves - 5th
I thought Rose and Vertonghen were excellent yesterday, Bentaleb was our best player though for me. He faded a bit in the middle of the season but is beginning to hit form again. Paulinho was better than I expected but he doesn't fill me with any confidence when he plays and Lamela was, I'm afraid to say, absolutely woeful IMO. The upside to the away seating position at Newcastle (the downside is that you need mountaineering equipment to get up there) is that you get a great ariel view of the pitch and can really see how the teams set up. As has been abundantly clear all season, our left side needs an awful lot of work as Rose is left to do a lot on his own. Chadli appears to be coming inside a lot and Eriksen tried to help defensively but he's not the most effective at chasing back towards his own goal. Our right side was much better balanced even with Dier and Lamela, with a proper RB there it might have been even better. What struck me too was how well Kane finds space. It makes me think that we might see him develop into a Thomas Muller type player who doesn't have a strictly designated position, or maybe that we'll play with a player on the left who can rotate into the striker position when Kane drifts out of it, like Rodriguez and Lambert operated at Southampton under Pochettino. I thought Chadi might fill that role but he tends to operate more outside the box. The Newcastle fans aren't a happy bunch at all, the ground seemed to slowly empty throughout the game and the attendance was definitely below the reported figures. Protests outside the Gallowgate before and after the match as well. I doubt Ashley cares too much though because it'l take a proper season ticket holder boycott to hurt him.
