Lamela video shows what he adds to Spurs

The article about Érik Lamela by Tom Collomosse in the London Evening Standard was a good read in that it provoked thought.

Lamela video shows what he adds to Spurs


There is no doubt Lamela has been hugely disappointing since his arrival at White Hart Lane 17 months ago. His first season failure has been labelled with injury and adaption to the game over here, but his mentality played it's part as well. He was depressed and that would have affected his training, his confidence and his game, he was in a downward spiral that was not all about injury and adaptation.

He shows a spark here and spark there that hinted at a talent not being used effectively or often enough. Tottenham sent him home to Argentina to see his family and train in the familiar surrounding of his old club River Plate, ahead of pre-season training.

Having missed a whole season effectively he has still had to adapt and different players take different lengths of time.He has had to learn that this is not the slow pace of football he was used to, that he has to think quicker and make decisions quicker. That creates it's own pressure and forces more errors. When you are trying to build your confidence, being forced to make quick decisions and thus make errors can obviously hurt your confidence building. It's a vicious circle.

A couple of phrases stood out for me.

“I think I’m getting used to English football and I think I have improved a lot, but I can still give a lot more. 
“I’m starting to show something of what I can do. I’m training very hard to reach that level and I’m working hard to achieve that every day. I’m very happy playing wide on the right of the attack, which I feel is my best position.”

Yes I think he is starting to adapt, he still runs at three players but we are starting to see more flashes of what he can do, we are starting to see more cutting and and getting away shots from a closer range than Andros Townsend does, from the same position. Tottenham's average is to shoot from 20.6 yards in the Premier League which is bettered by 16 sides, Lamela shot from an average 11.4 yards in the Serie A.

Take a look at his game video against Burnley, it starts with him in space and a decent pass (29 secs in) would have seen him on goal with a great chance of scoring from inside the box, not his fault it was a poor ball.

His interplay after a minute sees him start wide but pass and move to receive the ball in a dangerous area before a through ball and carries on himself into the box. Spurs don't get enough midfielders into the box but nothing came of it. You'll not from the next piece of action there are only two players in the box that he could have picked out.

It was his bit of skill after 3.34 minutes of the video where we should have score but Harry Kane made an air shot in front of goal. It was his hustling and strength after 4.14 that won the ball giving Kane a chance. His goal after 5.50 was from 20 yards but he consistently attacked the box in the game, as the second half highlights continued to show.

He is making progress and it seems to me we are close to harnessing and therefore bringing out his creative talent. He gets us closer to the goal, which is where we need to be shooting from, and when his teammates are more in tune with him, we could well see the huge talent we thought we had bought.