Player Watch: Erik Lamela

[dtxspurs]

He had scored 15 goals the previous season before he arrived. To claim we weren't hoping for him to develop into some sort of Bale replacement is revisionism of the highest order.

No two players are ever allowed to be compared, have you not learned that yet?

Why would our young goal scoring wing signing be expected to replace our outgoing goal scoring wing? Are you mad????

 

[wrd]

Based on math he should be 1/3 the player Bale was then?

My passing accuracy is about 1/3 of Bale's. I can run about 1/3 of the distance Bale covers in the same amount of time etc.

Lamela was supposed to be better than he has been. Some even thought he was going to become better than Bale. And obviously that wasn't impossible even if it was unlikely.

Vertonghen clearly wasn't able to play for us any longer, but I wouldn't have been upset if he had been given one more year. I don't think Sissoko is good enough to be a regular starter for us, but I got noting but respect for the way he has handled himself and gone from atrocious to being very good at times. Lamela never lived up to his hype, but I can't fault him for anything in terms of trying. A bit of a trend among quite a few players. Was easier when we had sulking Keane etc. - you just wanted them gone.

So it's Lamela who's at fault because people thought he'd become better than a player who was pretty much top 3 players in the entire world when we sold him. Not the fault of those who as usual set the bar too high for our signings and then lament the player because he didn't reach their unrealistic expectations.

I was hoping that Lamela would kick on and be more than a squad player of course. I wouldn't have predicted he'd have a back injury that would keep him out for 6 months of his first season and a double hip injury that would keep him out for 18 months also but that seems to be ignored. I never once thought he would come in and be better as an individual than Bale because it was plain to see that Bale was a phenomenon.

 

[McFlash]

I'll admit that Lamela hasn't reached the levels I'd hoped but that's mainly down to constant injuries.
When fit, he's usually been a starter and while maybe not the flamboyant, tricky winger some of us thought we were getting, I don't think it can be said that he hasn't been a decent player for us.

I mean, just look at Bale, he used to single handedly destroy teams.
Bale at that time, was arguably one of the best players in the world and nobody would've been able to replace that, let alone some 21 year old kid from Italy.
If you were expecting Coco to replace Bale in anything other than position on the pitch, then more fool you.

 

[wrd]

I'll admit that Lamela hasn't reached the levels I'd hoped but that's mainly down to constant injuries.
When fit, he's usually been a starter and while maybe not the flamboyant, tricky winger some of us thought we were getting, I don't think it can be said that he hasn't been a decent player for us.

I mean, just look at Bale, he used to single handedly destroy teams.
Bale at that time, was arguably one of the best players in the world and nobody would've been able to replace that, let alone some 21 year old kid from Italy.
If you were expecting Coco to replace Bale in anything other than position on the pitch, then more fool you.

Yes but if I use sarcasm it'll make it look like I have a point when really I'm saying sweet fuck all.

 

[C0YS]

Also on this idea that 'no other clubs would have kept him so long' nonsense.

Or that 'we always seem to make signings that don't live up to promise'. Mate 80% of all signings don't live up to promise. Not just at Spurs, in general. Because you buy with the hope that they can become one of these rare special super players, but very few of those exists. Very few Son's exist, Mane's etc. The number of attacking midfielders who hit double digits is not that many and is also, dependent on how a team plays and who they decide to keep up as an attacking threat blablblablabla. Teams don't just have limitless goals. Honestly they don't, and teams will change and adapt and focus on different routes and players to be their major goalscorers. Most top teams have no more than 3 players who score 10 goals or more. Maximum

Lets look at the three top scorers per club

Arsenal: Auba 22, Lacazzette 10, Pepe 5
Villa: Gealish 8, Trezeguet 6, Wesley 5
Bournmouth: Wilson 8, Wilson 7, King 6
Brighton: Maupay 10, Trossard 5, Connolly 3
Burnley: Wood 14, Jayrod 8, Barnes 6
Chelsea: Abraham 15 Willian 9 Pulisic 9
Palace: Ayew 9 Zaha 4 Milivojivic 3
Everton: DCL 13 Richarlison 13 Bernard 3
Leicester Vardy 23 Perez 8 Barnes 6
Liverpool: Salah 19 Mane 18 Firmino 9
Man city: Sterling 20, Aguero 16, Jesus 14 (and it goes on, De bruyne 13, Marez 11)
Man utd: Martial 17 Rashford 17 Greenwood 10
Norwich: Pukki 11 Cantwell 6 Buendia 1
Sheff utd: McBurnie 6, Mousset 6, Fleck 5
Southampton: Ings 22, Armstrong 5, JWP 5
Spurs: Kane 18, Son 11, Dele 8
Watford; Deeney 10, Sarr 5, Doucoure 4
West Ham Antonio 10, Hallar 7, Snodgrass 5
Wolves; Jimenez 17, Jota 7, Doherty 4

Now only the manchester teams got more than three goalscorers above 10 goals. Look at how low those goals look, throughout the league. How few players, apart from the freak of nature that is city, hit double figures in clubs. This is always the case. The point I'm making is the general expectation that fans have on player returns is unrealistic. How many goals.

I could do the same with assists. But I'm not going to bother because in 15/16 and 16/17 Erik Lamela got the highest assists in the club. So. You know. He was the best at it for us in those two seasons. His goal rate in the PL is poor, but it's not unusual, and I sometimes feel that fans want something which just doesn't happen. They want everybody with high unsustainable output.

I will say it now. As long as Son is in the club, Dele will never hit anything close 18 goals again, why, because he isn't the player we try to make space for in central areas anymore. Goals are not created, purely, or even primarily down to players ability to score them but rather how the team sets up.

Nedved didn't need to produce a lot to be the most influential player for Juve, they have the players to score, they have the players to set up goals. What Nedved was, he was the player to put energy and fight for every cause and drag the team through the mud. Nedved was also an amazing creative player with great ability on the ball. But what made him special was the combination of graft and talent. I feel if Nedved came around tomorrow, he would never be appreciated in the way he was back then.

The way that football has developed into raw production numbers, and people use these to win arguements, just makes me sad. Because football is not that simple, and it undermines what can really make a team work and tick. Now this isn't really about Lamela anymore, its more about how judge players in the modern time, but yehh. There you go.

 

[Japhet]

I'll admit that Lamela hasn't reached the levels I'd hoped but that's mainly down to constant injuries.
When fit, he's usually been a starter and while maybe not the flamboyant, tricky winger some of us thought we were getting, I don't think it can be said that he hasn't been a decent player for us.

I mean, just look at Bale, he used to single handedly destroy teams.
Bale at that time, was arguably one of the best players in the world and nobody would've been able to replace that, let alone some 21 year old kid from Italy.
If you were expecting Coco to replace Bale in anything other than position on the pitch, then more fool you.

The fact that Bale was single handedly carrying the team led to us spending money on 7 players who were all meant to carry some of that load. As you say, suggesting Lamela was meant to replace Bale is plain daft. He was part of a package to enable us to compete without relying one 1 individual

 

[C0YS]

The fact that Bale was single handedly carrying the team led to us spending money on 7 players who were all meant to carry some of that load. As you say, suggesting Lamela was meant to replace Bale is plain daft. He was part of a package to enable us to compete without relying one 1 individual

Thing is, half those players did collectively help a lot long term. Eriksen, Lamela and, yes, Chadli all contributed a great deal to our transition to a regular champions league side. Think about it, before them our options were Dempsey, Sig and a fading Lennon. While Eriksen, Lamela and Chadli became important before Dele and Son found their feet.

 

[ralphs bald spot]

Much as I have never been his greatest fan - I will miss his gallant efforts to try to get himself booked at the earliest opportunity when coming on as a sub -

 

[Trotter]

Also on this idea that 'no other clubs would have kept him so long' nonsense.

Or that 'we always seem to make signings that don't live up to promise'. Mate 80% of all signings don't live up to promise. Not just at Spurs, in general. Because you buy with the hope that they can become one of these rare special super players, but very few of those exists. Very few Son's exist, Mane's etc. The number of attacking midfielders who hit double digits is not that many and is also, dependent on how a team plays and who they decide to keep up as an attacking threat blablblablabla. Teams don't just have limitless goals. Honestly they don't, and teams will change and adapt and focus on different routes and players to be their major goalscorers. Most top teams have no more than 3 players who score 10 goals or more. Maximum

Lets look at the three top scorers per club

Arsenal: Auba 22, Lacazzette 10, Pepe 5
Villa: Gealish 8, Trezeguet 6, Wesley 5
Bournmouth: Wilson 8, Wilson 7, King 6
Brighton: Maupay 10, Trossard 5, Connolly 3
Burnley: Wood 14, Jayrod 8, Barnes 6
Chelsea: Abraham 15 Willian 9 Pulisic 9
Palace: Ayew 9 Zaha 4 Milivojivic 3
Everton: DCL 13 Richarlison 13 Bernard 3
Leicester Vardy 23 Perez 8 Barnes 6
Liverpool: Salah 19 Mane 18 Firmino 9
Man city: Sterling 20, Aguero 16, Jesus 14 (and it goes on, De bruyne 13, Marez 11)
Man utd: Martial 17 Rashford 17 Greenwood 10
Norwich: Pukki 11 Cantwell 6 Buendia 1
Sheff utd: McBurnie 6, Mousset 6, Fleck 5
Southampton: Ings 22, Armstrong 5, JWP 5
Spurs: Kane 18, Son 11, Dele 8
Watford; Deeney 10, Sarr 5, Doucoure 4
West Ham Antonio 10, Hallar 7, Snodgrass 5
Wolves; Jimenez 17, Jota 7, Doherty 4

Now only the manchester teams got more than three goalscorers above 10 goals. Look at how low those goals look, throughout the league. How few players, apart from the freak of nature that is city, hit double figures in clubs. This is always the case. The point I'm making is the general expectation that fans have on player returns is unrealistic. How many goals.

I could do the same with assists. But I'm not going to bother because in 15/16 and 16/17 Erik Lamela got the highest assists in the club. So. You know. He was the best at it for us in those two seasons. His goal rate in the PL is poor, but it's not unusual, and I sometimes feel that fans want something which just doesn't happen. They want everybody with high unsustainable output.

I will say it now. As long as Son is in the club, Dele will never hit anything close 18 goals again, why, because he isn't the player we try to make space for in central areas anymore. Goals are not created, purely, or even primarily down to players ability to score them but rather how the team sets up.

Nedved didn't need to produce a lot to be the most influential player for Juve, they have the players to score, they have the players to set up goals. What Nedved was, he was the player to put energy and fight for every cause and drag the team through the mud. Nedved was also an amazing creative player with great ability on the ball. But what made him special was the combination of graft and talent. I feel if Nedved came around tomorrow, he would never be appreciated in the way he was back then.

The way that football has developed into raw production numbers, and people use these to win arguements, just makes me sad. Because football is not that simple, and it undermines what can really make a team work and tick. Now this isn't really about Lamela anymore, its more about how judge players in the modern time, but yehh. There you go.

Now if only there wasn't a thread on this site to show you have totally made that up, and shows that in both seasons you claim he had the most, Eriksen and Dele had many more assists then him, in one of those seasons Eriksen had 23 compared to Lamela's 6 (Lamela had the least assists of any of our 5 forward players that year, not the most in the club by the way)

 

[Mr Pink]

To claim he's been a massive disappointment is a total exaggeration.

Soldado was a massive disappointment.

Lamela has been a mixed bag, held back by injury.

But it's time to move him on if we can.

 

[ajspurs]

To claim he's been a massive disappointment is a total exaggeration.

Soldado was a massive disappointment.

Lamela has been a mixed bag, held back by injury.

But it's time to move him on if we can.

Definitely not a massive disappointment, although I wouldn't argue with someone who thinks he's just been 'a disappointment'. For me I've always been somewhat happy with what he's shown on the pitch, even in the early days where he was a little flimsy, I liked his energy. Unfortunately it's just the amount of injuries and how little we've actually been able to rely on him.

 

[HildoSpur]

Keep refreshing the squad. Thank him for his service and move him on.

I cant imagine many of the top teams keeping a player like him on as long as we have.

Phil Jones

 

[CornerPinDreamer]

I saw a rabona by a Spurs player so all you misery guts can do one


good luck to him

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

You're comparing a squad player with 2 of THE greatest players of all time, that's probably why.

FYP

 

[C0YS]

Now if only there wasn't a thread on this site to show you have totally made that up, and shows that in both seasons you claim he had the most, Eriksen and Dele had many more assists then him, in one of those seasons Eriksen had 23 compared to Lamela's 6 (Lamela had the least assists of any of our 5 forward players that year, not the most in the club by the way)

Erm, in the league using the PL site. I might have made a mistake, but I didnt make that up. Yes, so I got the dates mixed up 14/15 and 15/16 is what I meant. 16/17 would be silly cos Lamela played, like, 9 times.


14/15 were with 7 assists he was our top player.

15/16 The season after he was joint top with Dele with 9 assists.

I didn't clarify it was PL, but all the stats before were PL so I assumed that was clear.

Don't accuse people of making things up please. It's not very nice, but also I would give you the benifit of the doubt, and it's common courtesy to do that to other people too. I might sometimes exaggerate things now and then and get carried away, but believe me I put an awful lot of research into my posts.

EDIT: Sorry I confess to not spotting Eriksen, so second in 15/16, and joint 8th in the league. Still pretty darn good.

Premier League Player Stats - Assists

View Assists played by Premier League players for 2018/19 and previous seasons, on the official website of the Premier League.

www.premierleague.com

Also, the funny thing is in 16/17 Lamela got a total of 7 assists, quite possibly the least out of our forwards. Only, he did it in 14 games. Which, is, like, league leading productivity!

 

[joey55]

Based on math he should be 1/3 the player Bale was then?

.

There has to be a suitable Dario Silva joke reply to this somewhere.

 

[thefierycamel]

Sell him and bring back Edwards, if he's happy to come back.

 

[diamond lights]

Sell him and bring back Edwards, if he's happy to come back.

Edwards would benefit from Lamela's work ethic and bastardyness.

 

[topper]

I saw a rabona by a Spurs player so all you misery guts can do one


good luck to him

Probably fall over if i tried

 

[Havre]

So it's Lamela who's at fault because people thought he'd become better than a player who was pretty much top 3 players in the entire world when we sold him. Not the fault of those who as usual set the bar too high for our signings and then lament the player because he didn't reach their unrealistic expectations.

I was hoping that Lamela would kick on and be more than a squad player of course. I wouldn't have predicted he'd have a back injury that would keep him out for 6 months of his first season and a double hip injury that would keep him out for 18 months also but that seems to be ignored. I never once thought he would come in and be better as an individual than Bale because it was plain to see that Bale was a phenomenon.

Fault? Have I ever said it was Lamela´s "fault"?

He was supposed to be more than 1/3 of the player Bale was. That was the context.

Of course things like injuries influences things, but did anyone ever see a top class player in Lamela? He never showed any of that potential in my opinion.

Not that he has been useless. Definitely not. And he will still be useful if he stays.