Further Lamela encouragement

Saturday saw further encouragement from a player who has had plenty of inches on this website for his failure to produce the level of performance he is capable of.

Regular readers will know I feel the club could have done even more than they did to help him, he could have done more to help himself. He has always had the talent and you all don't need reminding that talent simply isn't enough to be a top-level success in sport, talent is ten a penny.

As a Spurs fan I, of course, want our side in the top four, I want our side regularly winning trophies. We don't have a Sugar Daddy so being jealous of those who have isn't going to help us now one little bit, it actively works against us.

Because I want our side ever present in the top four I look at players and ask are they good enough to play there, can they take us there and do they have the improvement within them to become better than they are now, if so how?

Erik Lamela has the talent, no question, to play at that level, but individually he doesn't. The key, as you know, is in his head and in his heart, it's tapping into his motivation to untap the player. He has spent two frustrating seasons, one pining for Italy, one clearly full of self-doubt and again with an eye on returning to Italy, his comfort zone, somewhere he feels safe and happy.

Roberto Soldado has shown the benefits, as expected, of returning to familiarity, it isn't that a system suddenly suits him, he has taken a weight off his shoulders, released his head from the crisis of confidence and started to do what we all knew he could do. It is brilliant that he Tweets after Spurs game and congratulates us, not too many players do that for former clubs regularly.

Lamela out wide, despite banging in the goals in Italy from there, posed no goal threat and was thus being carried. All our front four must carry a goal threat and the encouraging signs from Thursday from Lamela were continued against Palace.

Yes he missed chances against Qarabag, but he kept getting in the positions to score, he hasn't been doing that for two years. The instance where he thumped the ground in frustration at himself for letting the ball get away from him around their area said a lot. Clearly there is a strong desire there now to succeed, he will know he is in the last chance saloon this season, Pochettino has made that clear to the press.

Our goal came about because Lamela out muscled, yes Lamela out muscled, a Palace player on the edge of our box, got up off the floor and set us on our way. He also played some excellent through balls that didn't produce goals, but showed he wasn't afraid to try and create. many a time we seem frightened to play a ball through the defence preferring to play sideways. He was prepared to risk failure to achieve success, mentally that is an important step.

I noticed at one point when we were 1-0 up I think so after Eriksen had come on that we had the ball on the left. Players were running into space to give the man on the ball easy options and Eriksen jogged behind the ball. We suddenly had 4 players within 10 yards of each other all behind the ball for a pass. It summed up the way we were playing last season with no runners from midfield, fortunately, we had addressed that this season.

Lamela, Alli and Mason in the role against Sunderland are all now looking to run beyond the ball into the area. It also means that when Lamela has the ball he has options and I'm seeing hints that he is going to play a fair few balls that unlock defences, Son looks to have the intelligence to, while Alli doesn't seem afraid to play them either.

Eriksen will have to be on the ball this season, he may have to raise his game, it could well help him if Lamela is now going to take some of the responsibility to create, he'll be able to have more rest and remain fresher. I don't think there is any doubt he was running on empty at the end of last season.

The Dier switch has been an unqualified success, switching Lamela central and getting him motivated may not only be the key to his success, the knock-on effect could have great benefits for Spurs.

Further Tottenham Reading
Player Reaction to Palace Win - Alli, Lamela, Chadli, Eriksen, Mason, Soldado, Clemence, Davies and more
Success is only a light switch away
Critical thinking improves Spurs

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