Or maybe his rehab is better served in his own country?
Certainly not the 1st player to go gone for rehab, definitely won't be the last.
But to say that it is an "invidious and misleading comparison" means that either you don't understand the meaning of the word "invidious", you don't understand what I was trying to say, or you yourself are invidious.
Ok thanks.Brian Lamela is his brother. He's constantly updating what's going on with Erik.
If he has to go back to Argentina to get himself fit, it doesnt say much about our own coaches in the last campaign.
They aren't comparable body-types and they don't play the same style of football, so it's an invidious and misleading comparison.
Modric is wiry and very strong and, like Messi, has a low centre of gravity. He doesn't need 'bulk' to be tough. He also rarely embarks on a lengthy dribble - he typically takes a few steps into space as he receives the ball to evade bigger, more powerful tacklers, before releasing the ball - elusive, as others have written, but also very strong for his size.
Messi is actually quite 'bulky' for his size - he has a short, chunky build, unlike Modric, with powerful legs. And I recall reading that he was indeed indeed put on a special diet and given HGH (with permission), as a young player, because his coaches were concerned about a genetic height-restriction issue (the details were left vague).
Lamela is tall and willowy and, unlike Modric and like Messi, his game does involve trying to dribble past multiple opponents. At present, he can't do it, at least not in the Premiership. I watched the same thing happen more than once in every single one of his appearances last season. He'd receive the ball, beat one or two men and then the third one would bully him right off the ball, thus wasting the good work he did in beating the first man or two.
I don't think he needs to 'bulk up', in the sense of lifting heavy weights to build bulky muscle mass. The last thing he needs is to emulate Christian Benteke. What he does need, desperately, is more upper body strength - he's visibly slight and slender above the waist and the result shows on the pitch, as I just described. Pilates will address that, as will high-reps gym work with medium weights or working against springs. When a bigger player barges him, he has to be able to stand his ground, barge back and keep going with the ball under control. He's visibly unable to do that with his current level and type of fitness.
I dont know who youve been watching but he hasnt had any close control.Did someone really say Lamela has no close control...Jesus wept!
I dont know who youve been watching but he hasnt had any close control.
Maybe on his You Tube vids but for us he's been shit.
Christ he lost the ball nearly everytime he got the f in thing by knocking it to far in front of him so what were you watchin?
I wasnt talking about why he's doing it. We can come up with loads of reasons why.Have you not asked yourself why there is such a difference between his play elsewhere and his play for us? We've just been having a lengthy discussion about his physical strength on this very thread. When he doesn't have a defender bumping and barging him, he has exquisite close control and a nifty way of keeping the ball away from opponents by having his dribbling foot slightly sideways.
I can't imagine when you saw him knocking the ball ahead and chasing it - I watched his every appearance and I didn't see him do that once - it's a Bale-style thing that requires pace and Lamela isn't especially quick.
If he knocked the ball out of his control, it was because he had a defender all over him. And here we get to the point. He isn't being allowed to show his close-control skills because, through injury, non-selection and lack of physical fitness, he's not had a chance to get adjusted to English football.
As you pointed out, he loses the ball virtually every time he attempts a dribble - but it isn't because of his own lack of skill, it's because he can't cope with physical opponents. He isn't going to be able to do that until he gets stronger, which penny appears to have dropped: he's in Argentina for their Winter/our Summer to get stuck in at the gym.
I'm looking forward to a different, more effective Lamela next season, who has the physical strength to show his undoubted skills.
I dont know who youve been watching but he hasnt had any close control.
Maybe on his You Tube vids but for us he's been shit.
Christ he lost the ball nearly everytime he got the f in thing by knocking it to far in front of him so what were you watchin?