Player Watch: Erik Lamela

[Jenko]

I don't think the scapegoat narrative can be applied here.

The fact that we all have witnessed Sissoko's turn around so much that he was the Player's Player of the Season and became a fan favorite speaks volumes of what is possible for a player to accomplish and there there is absolutely no room for excuses for Lamela.

He has had 6 years to build his legacy and it has been an extremely underwhelming legacy. He will be remembered for a rabona goal vs. some 3rd tier team he scored in Europa League, his stamp on Cesc, his fouls and effort, but a huge majority will remember him as a injury prone player that never lived up to the hype as the £30Mil crown jewel which was supposed to replace Bale that Summer.

I hear you but I think his injuries are the excuse and he may be justified in saying that after he retires. It gives satisfaction to absolutely no-one but it's a genuine reason for not reaching his full potential. Sissoko has monsters DNA so it was a big help for him on the road back to success.

 

[ralvy]

This is exactly the reason why I don't bother getting into anything with you, you've either forgotten why I didn't want to carry on the debate or you're just lying through your teeth. I said De Gea is arguably better than Lloris because he's been more consistent over a similar period, to me it's obvious however merely an opinion yet you want to get into a debate about it and it's been proven that you can't comprehend other viewpoints, I'm taking the if we can't agree then just disagree - you should just accept that.

It's the same here, you want to debate about something which is clearly obvious about Lamela, we can't rely on him anymore because of his injury record, why is that so hard to understand? I don't get why you think people are disrespecting him and you need to defend him when it's the truth? Why feel the need to make another irrelevant point about our other players in a derogatory way? In regards to your argument why does one match take precedent over a million others when those players played a part in getting us to the final and are heavily responsible for our progress as a club now?

I find positive words about him annoying, give over FFS You're just literally proving my point - arguing with you is fucking tedious and boring hence why I can't be arsed.

Perhaps the reason why you find so tedious and boring arguing with me is because you keep trying to move the goalposts and I'm not letting you do it so easily? Your original point of disagreement with me was about how silly you found me saying that our Fab Four are unreliable (you actually went and called it the worst post of the year, which is so cool actually), but now you want to make it seem like what you were actually taking issue with was with me making such claim in defense of Lamela, while at the same time attempting to dismiss my assessment of those four players as nonsense. I'm sorry mate, but it doesn't work that way.

Anyway, I already told you my reasons about bringing up the unreliability of our other attacking players and why it isn't irrelevant to the Lamela thread, and I also already told you the importance of a CL final in assessing players reliability. if you just want to cover your ears while crying "waa whatabaaaaaaaaaaautery" then by all means do so but, all that tells me is that you're simply not mature enough to handle actual discussions with other people.

Also, about that Lloris thread, you are right that I remembered incorrectly the actual topic of conversation, but that doesn't change the fact that you tried pulling off that same tactic of wanting to make claims while ignoring what people answered you... not without first shooting one last snide comment aimed at the person who dared to disagree with you.

Anyway, you're right about one thing: let's just agree to disagree.

 

[Shadydan]

Sigh

 

[Khilari]

Strange thread. Lamela hasn't lived up to his potential - most agree. Injuries have plagued him - most agree.

Hardly his fault though. After coming back from a chronic hip complaint that has prevented him from playing, he's been mightily unlucky this season with injuries, much like Winks and Dier. Of course some players are more injury prone, e.g. Kane and his frequent ankle injuries but that's how we are built and there's not a lot players can do beyond what the physios and medical staff advise of them, which may or may not be right.

Lamela has lost out in this too, yet some of the narrative on this thread seems to allude to this as the player's fault.

 

[Haddock]

Of course it's not Lamelas fault that he's been injured. But you can't be too sentimental about these things. As of now is there anything that points towards Lamela being able to cope with a full season of PL football? I just can't see it.

 

[Khilari]

Of course it's not Lamelas fault that he's been injured. But you can't be too sentimental about these things. As of now is there anything that points towards Lamela being able to cope with a full season of PL football? I just can't see it.

That's a fair assessment - I guess we will have to rely on the club medics/physios etc.

However, he is already at the club, understands the way we play and train and when fit (a big when) adds something we don't currently have to our attacking lineup. When he plays he has decent return.

To put him context, here's how he compared to Dele in the Premier League:

Lamela: P 19, Gls 4, Ass 2, Big Chances 4
Dele: P 25, Gls 5, Ass 3, Big Chances 6

Given his injury-hit season, I don't think they are massively different records. [Our best creator, Eriksen managed 8 goals, 12 assists and 10 big chances in 35 appearances, which underlines his importance to our play.]

To improve things, we would have to find a buyer at willing to pay a considerable amount to recoup some of our initial investment and take forward to spend, which may be hard given his recent injury record. Signing someone of his calibre I suspect would cost a lot more than we are likely to get for him and it doesn't sound like we necessarily have that kind of cash sitting around at the moment.

 

[Khilari]

(PS. Check out this from when he was younger - now we know where he got the inspiration from!

)

 

[Hakkz]

That's a fair assessment - I guess we will have to rely on the club medics/physios etc.

However, he is already at the club, understands the way we play and train and when fit (a big when) adds something we don't currently have to our attacking lineup. When he plays he has decent return.

To put him context, here's how he compared to Dele in the Premier League:

Lamela: P 19, Gls 4, Ass 2, Big Chances 4
Dele: P 25, Gls 5, Ass 3, Big Chances 6

Given his injury-hit season, I don't think they are massively different records. [Our best creator, Eriksen managed 8 goals, 12 assists and 10 big chances in 35 appearances, which underlines his importance to our play.]

To improve things, we would have to find a buyer at willing to pay a considerable amount to recoup some of our initial investment and take forward to spend, which may be hard given his recent injury record. Signing someone of his calibre I suspect would cost a lot more than we are likely to get for him and it doesn't sound like we necessarily have that kind of cash sitting around at the moment.

Dele was also carrying injuries last season.

The last 3 seasons Lamela has been part of 53 games in the PL (2396 minutes). That's almost as many minutes (2384) as he played in the 15/16 season alone. We need someone who's able to stay fit can be consistently called upon when needed.

 

[Khilari]

Dele was also carrying injuries last season.

The last 3 seasons Lamela has been part of 53 games in the PL (2396 minutes). That's almost as many minutes (2384) as he played in the 15/16 season alone. We need someone who's able to stay fit can be consistently called upon when needed.

Yes of course. Lamela has had a horrible chronic hip problem that basically ruled him out of 17-18 but he seems to have come back from that. Last season's injuries were muscular (rather than chronic joint pain) and why he had such a bad run, I don't know but I hope that was bad luck, like Dele, Winks and Aurier.

I think the point I was making was that I'm not sure we have the funds to upgrade Lamela without selling players first and if we do there's no guarantee they will be more successful or injury free. So I'd keep Lamela and add to the front 4 rather than attempt to replace him at this stage. But I can imagine if he has a non-productive season again, his time will probably be up.

 

[Hakkz]

Yes of course. Lamela has had a horrible chronic hip problem that basically ruled him out of 17-18 but he seems to have come back from that. Last season's injuries were muscular (rather than chronic joint pain) and why he had such a bad run, I don't know but I hope that was bad luck, like Dele, Winks and Aurier.

I think the point I was making was that I'm not sure we have the funds to upgrade Lamela without selling players first and if we do there's no guarantee they will be more successful or injury free. So I'd keep Lamela and add to the front 4 rather than attempt to replace him at this stage. But I can imagine if he has a non-productive season again, his time will probably be up.

Some players just seem to get a lot of injuries though, unlucky I guess.

My issue is only that Poch seems desperate to keep Lamela no matter what. I'm pretty sure we could get 25-30m from Italy and use that for a replacement. Yeah, you might not get a world beater but we need someone capable who can also stay fit.

 

[Khilari]

Some players just seem to get a lot of injuries though, unlucky I guess.

My issue is only that Poch seems desperate to keep Lamela no matter what. I'm pretty sure we could get 25-30m from Italy and use that for a replacement. Yeah, you might not get a world beater but we need someone capable who can also stay fit.

I hope he can "pull an Anderton" - by which I surprisingly mean that after 3 seasons injured, he managed over 20 appearances for Spurs over the next 6 seasons, in two of which he managed over 30 appearances.

 

[Hakkz]

I hope he can "pull an Anderton" - by which I surprisingly mean that after 3 seasons injured, he managed over 20 appearances for Spurs over the next 6 seasons, in two of which he managed over 30 appearances.

Me too. Until this season Lamela was my favourite player, but I realised that it's just not working anymore.

 

[danielneeds]

I hope he can "pull an Anderton" - by which I surprisingly mean that after 3 seasons injured, he managed over 20 appearances for Spurs over the next 6 seasons, in two of which he managed over 30 appearances.

The problem is Anderton was pretty much our best player around that time, certainly our most productive goal creator.

Lamela has never consistently produced much when fit. Although I really like him as a player, if we're to push on and challenge City/Liv we need forward options who consistently affect games either starting or from the bench.

There's also the fact that Baldini is still advising the Roma owner and it's something we should take advantage of because we know he loves Erik and they are desperate at the moment to quell fan unrest over the whole Tottigate. Lamela is still much loved there. I really think a deal would suit both parties.

 

[Khilari]

Lamela has never consistently produced much when fit.

You say that, but in the two seasons he was fit, he notched up >30 appearances both seasons, 2 goals, 7 assists and 8 big chances / 5 goals, 9 assists and 11 big chances.

I don't think that’s bad, but I accept the argument that Son is far better now and Lucas has the potential to also improve on that.

 

[TwanYid]

I think Lamela is the perfect player to bring off the bench to inject some life into us and also to start the occasional match. And, as he has proven countless times, the bigger the match, the better he seems to play. Also, he can play as a 10 and dictate a match. The guy’s talent is undeniable.

Plus, he’s a straight-up warrior- something we don’t have enough of in our squad. The dude isn’t scared of anything— any game, any opponent, any situation. His heart is brave- a la an Edgar Davids. And like with Davids you just can’t discount what his mere presence means to the squad. Also, he is Tottenham through and through. I just don’t think some on here appreciate how important these qualities are.

Look- for those of you in the “I agree with all of the above HOWEVER the dude is always injured!”-camp, I say: you’re right. But I think we need to give him one more year and see what happens. I will give you that if he’s injured again this season for an unreasonable length of time then ok, time to offload— but with Eriksen possibly leaving us, a healthy (God willing) Erik Lamela could really prove useful. Let’s have some faith and see how it goes with him allegedly fit and ready to go. I want to see him in our new stadium, shithousing scum and blue scum players and just generally being our incredibly talented, unfathomably-annoying-to-the-opposition, resident nuisance.

Admittedly I love him; yes I’m a fanboy, yes, he’s my favorite player, and yes I’d gladly blow...

Um, what I meant to say is I’d blow hot and cold too if I were like some of you who don’t see him in the positive way I do...

 

[Hakkz]

I think Lamela is the perfect player to bring off the bench to inject some life into us and also to start the occasional match. And, as he has proven countless times, the bigger the match, the better he seems to play. Also, he can play as a 10 and dictate a match. The guy’s talent is undeniable.

Plus, he’s a straight-up warrior- something we don’t have enough of in our squad. The dude isn’t scared of anything— any game, any opponent, any situation. His heart is brave- a la an Edgar Davids. And like with David’s you just can’t discount what his mere presence means to the squad. Also, he is Tottenham through and through. I just don’t think some on here appreciate how important these qualities are.

Look- for those of you in the “I agree with all of the above HOWEVER the dude is always injured!” I say: you’re right. But I think we need to give him one more year and see what happens. I will give you that if he’s injured again this season for an unreasonable length of time then ok, time to offload— but with Eriksen possibly leaving us, a healthy (God willing) Erik Lamela could really prove useful. Let’s have some faith and see how it goes with him allegedly healthy, fit and ready to go. I want to see him in our new stadium, shithousing scum and blue scum players and just generally being our resident talented nuisance.

Admittedly I love him; yes I’m a fanboy, yes, he’s my favorite player, and yes I’d gladly blow...

Um, what I meant to say is I’d blow hot and cold too if I were like some of you who don’t see him in the positive way I do...

I really want to agree with you all the way but I reached my point this season. I don't see how he suddenly won't be troubled by injury after the last couple of seasons.

 

[dontcallme]

I like Lamela and his attitude. Without the injuries I believe he could have been really good for us.

Just get the felling it is never going to happen for him here.

I have said to give him one more season the last two years. But chances are he needs a new start.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

How many goals and assists does he have in how many apps for us? If he could be trusted to be fit and get a good run of games he’d be worth keeping but as he’s probably not mabye one to try and replace.

 

[glospur]

As usual, looking very sharp in pre-season. Wouldn't be surprised to start ahead of someone like Lucas against Villa.

Just please stay fit, Coco!

 

[mill]

As usual, looking very sharp in pre-season. Wouldn't be surprised to start ahead of someone like Lucas against Villa.

Just please stay fit, Coco!

Yeah think he’s best one of our best players in preseason