Lamela off the ball, a case for optimism

Erik Lamela had an up and down game, but there were pleasing and encouraging aspects, one of which was highlighted during the build-up to the second goal by Son Heung-min.



While everyone is focussing on Dele Alli, his run and the run of Son to link up well together, the other player prominent in this video is Erik Lamela. Forget the ball for a moment, take a look at the off the ball running of Lamela.

He is looking to run beyond the man with the ball, but more than that he doesn't just run anywhere into the box as so many players do, when Alli gets the ball he is looking to go central, where a striker would be. If you recall he was through on goal central and miss controlled the ball in the first half, he was through centrally when he took the ball off Alli and hit the post before finally scoring from a central position.


The justified main criticism against him is that he has had no goal threat, 7 assists is great but if that isn't backed up with 10 goals there are other players who can do better. This was not Premier League opposition and he had plenty of space, but he was looking to get into more dangerous positions than he did last season.

If that trend continues then he is giving himself a chance of turning the corner in his Tottenham career. he will have had help and advice from Mauricio Pochettino of course, but he still has to put things into practice so had he made a conscious decision to put himself in positions here he can fail, in goalscoring opportunities?

His misses a glorious chance, but he didn't hide, he kept putting himself in a position to score or miss, that may mean there is a greater determination within him this season. It is early days and I'm not going to go overboard yet, he still has a lot to do to prove himself a top four player, let alone the talent we thought we had bought.

Fair play though, where Vlad Chiriches never looked like putting in a decent performance, Paulinho rarely looked bothered enough to do so, Lamela is giving us cause for optimism, tempered optimism at this stage.