Érik Lamela

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Which means we're winning the ball higher up the field I assume?

Indeed. I think Eriksen is the player in the Premier League with the most last-third interceptions. Him and Lamela really have a good chemistry in the press. Lamela harasses and pushes forward, Eriksen strategically picks up the pieces with his fantastic positioning.
 
There’s so much more to Erik Lamela than meets the eye – and you won’t see it in YouTube compilations
By Seb Stafford-Bloor

There’s so much more to Erik Lamela than meets the eye – and you won’t see it in YouTube compilations

The Argentine has proved himself one of Tottenham’s most improved players over the last season, writes Seb Stafford-Bloor – made all the more impressive by an often-testing history…

It's late June 2011 and El Monumental has descended into chaos. Following a 3-1 loss to Belgrano over over two legs, River Plate have been relegated for the first time in their 110-year history. The stadium is a physical representation of trauma: police fire water cannons at mutinous supporters, hooded youths are throwing unidentifiable objects towards the pitch and, encircled within a ring of stewards, River's first team sob uncontrollably.

Within that ugly spectacle, crouched over and in tears, was a teenage Erik Lamela. Having reached the end of his first full season with his boyhood club, it would be the last time he wore the team's iconic No.10 shirt.
lamela_river.jpg

Two months later, he had moved to Rome to begin life in Serie A. By August 2013, Lamela had hot-footed again and begun what would ultimately be a trying 18 months at Tottenham. The Argentine was willowy and wasteful, frail and fragile, clearly blessed with the technical ability to command a £30m transfer fee but with not nearly enough Premier League suitability to justify it.

Edited personality
Lamela’s story between then and now has been frequently recited. Injured under Andre Villas-Boas, distrusted by Tim Sherwood and eventually restored by Mauricio Pochettino, Lamela is a different beast these days. The old flecks of imperfection remain and traces of his flair heritage can still be spotted, but now iron-willed and nasty, the Argentine has become a teflon cog within Pochettino's relentless mechanism.

Lamela has been spoken about for a long time. A gem of River Plate's youth academy who attracted serious interest from Barcelona as a teenager, he has been assumed destined for the top of the game as long as his name has been known. What nobody realised then, however, was that it would be his personality rather than his flashy frills which would give him traction at the top of the sport.

In 2016, every player in the world seems to have his own YouTube compilation. Airbrushed and edited – and inevitably soundtracked to some EuroTrance nightmare – they are banal videos which make everyone look like a star.
CLPGg1.gif

(OK we know, but this really was great.)

So, when Lamela was signed by Tottenham and their supporters clamoured for a look at their new record signing's back catalogue, they saw a flashy winger with a millennial's haircut and big bag of tricks. That may not have been an entirely inaccurate depiction of Lamela, but what those videos were never able to show was his texture.

The qualities which have allowed him to rediscover his equilibrium at White Hart Lane are those which are exposed in tiny snippets, like in this extract from a Guardian interview in November 2014.
lamela_2013.jpg

“There was talk, not only in the summer, but in December – people had spoken about me in Italy and stuff,” Lamela recalled. “But I’d spoken with my family and my girlfriend and we were all convinced that my time would come, that once I got over this injury I would be able to show what I could do. We were never going to leave this challenge.”

True grit
Lamela, you see, is not an ordinary footballer. The 24-year-old is betrayed by both his appearance and his technical proficiency: he is neither a flouncing, flakey show-boater, nor someone overly-enamoured with his own ability. His failures appear to make him stronger and his appetite for self-improvement is, in this age of entitlement and exaggerated self-worth, quite remarkable.

Dive through social media for long enough, for instance, and you'll find the videos showing him on the pitch in deserted stadiums after games, dancing with footballs under the dimming floodlights and honing his technique. They're sequences which belong in stylised Hollywood montages, but are rarely seen in the three-dimensional world.
lamela_pochettino.jpg

But to appreciate Lamela’s reclamation project, it's important to appreciate the atmosphere within which it has occurred.

For a long time, he was unpopular at White Hart Lane. His errant touches would draw audible frustration from the stands and, actually, there were times when the relationship between the player and the supporters became distinctly uncomfortable – almost mutinous. When Marseille were rumoured to be close to signing him on loan in August 2015, his imminent departure seemed merciful. He had, by anybody's reckoning, suffered enough.

There’s a world outside
But then, that was to underestimate him and also, maybe, why that traumatic afternoon at El Monumental remains pertinent. English football culture is very insular and we consider our own Premier League, quite wrongly, to be an ultimate proving ground in which pressure and expectation collide at a terrifying apex.

But think of what Lamela endured and was exposed to – or, more specifically, consider the hardening effect of feeling such fierce footballing acrimony as a teenager? In sport, as they are in life, vivid experiences tend not only to linger in a person's consciousness, but also to shape their personality and guide their future.

Facing the same discontent, many other players would have left Tottenham at the earliest opportunity. Rather than pushing through the fire, they would have abandoned the challenge in England and re-glorified themselves in a more forgiving league. Lamela didn't and that, perhaps, is something too commonly overlooked.

While Pochettino and his coaching staff have had a profound influence on the player's trajectory, none of their instruction, direction or faith would have been worth anything had he himself not been receptive to it.

Change is good
And there has had to be a lot of change. In August 2013, after Lamela's move to England had been completed, journalist Paolo Bandini wrote: "Lamela still has room for improvement… most notably in the defensive side of the game. He was lax at times in tracking back for Roma, and it will be up to Villas-Boas whether to demand more from him in that department or simply position him in such a way that his responsibilities are reduced.”

When a perception like that exists, it's rarely corrected. Most players who fall into that category spend their entire careers being accommodated and are generally tolerated for who they are.

The counter-example that Lamela provides is rare. His improvement has been enabled by not only an unusual tolerance for adversity, but also a willingness to be broken down and rebuilt.
lamela_man_united.jpg

That malleability may be typical in more mundane players who regularly have to contort their shape for the sake of just having a career, but it's scarce in someone who was an Argentina international before his 20th birthday.

That kind of player floats to the top of the game, expects to be indulged and rarely takes on the mid-career challenge of altering his habits and traits. When asked to get fitter and work harder, that kind of player usually cannot call his agent quickly enough.

You’re so very special
It takes a special manager, then, to oversee such a change – but also a special person to be understand its necessity.

So Lamela is special. Maybe not in the dazzling Gareth Bale way that was anticipated but, through his range of career experiences and his personality blend, he has become something precious at White Hart Lane. He is the locking mechanism at the top of the formation, an attacking flourish when needed and also one of the hardest working flair players the Premier League has ever seen.

Maybe that fractious 2011 day in Buenos Aires meant nothing, maybe everything. Regardless, Lamela has allowed himself to be a symbol of the changing times at Tottenham: he is both his manager's and his own finest achievement.
 
There’s so much more to Erik Lamela than meets the eye – and you won’t see it in YouTube compilations
By Seb Stafford-Bloor

There’s so much more to Erik Lamela than meets the eye – and you won’t see it in YouTube compilations

The Argentine has proved himself one of Tottenham’s most improved players over the last season, writes Seb Stafford-Bloor – made all the more impressive by an often-testing history…

It's late June 2011 and El Monumental has descended into chaos. Following a 3-1 loss to Belgrano over over two legs, River Plate have been relegated for the first time in their 110-year history. The stadium is a physical representation of trauma: police fire water cannons at mutinous supporters, hooded youths are throwing unidentifiable objects towards the pitch and, encircled within a ring of stewards, River's first team sob uncontrollably.

Within that ugly spectacle, crouched over and in tears, was a teenage Erik Lamela. Having reached the end of his first full season with his boyhood club, it would be the last time he wore the team's iconic No.10 shirt.
lamela_river.jpg

Two months later, he had moved to Rome to begin life in Serie A. By August 2013, Lamela had hot-footed again and begun what would ultimately be a trying 18 months at Tottenham. The Argentine was willowy and wasteful, frail and fragile, clearly blessed with the technical ability to command a £30m transfer fee but with not nearly enough Premier League suitability to justify it.

Edited personality
Lamela’s story between then and now has been frequently recited. Injured under Andre Villas-Boas, distrusted by Tim Sherwood and eventually restored by Mauricio Pochettino, Lamela is a different beast these days. The old flecks of imperfection remain and traces of his flair heritage can still be spotted, but now iron-willed and nasty, the Argentine has become a teflon cog within Pochettino's relentless mechanism.

Lamela has been spoken about for a long time. A gem of River Plate's youth academy who attracted serious interest from Barcelona as a teenager, he has been assumed destined for the top of the game as long as his name has been known. What nobody realised then, however, was that it would be his personality rather than his flashy frills which would give him traction at the top of the sport.

In 2016, every player in the world seems to have his own YouTube compilation. Airbrushed and edited – and inevitably soundtracked to some EuroTrance nightmare – they are banal videos which make everyone look like a star.
CLPGg1.gif

(OK we know, but this really was great.)

So, when Lamela was signed by Tottenham and their supporters clamoured for a look at their new record signing's back catalogue, they saw a flashy winger with a millennial's haircut and big bag of tricks. That may not have been an entirely inaccurate depiction of Lamela, but what those videos were never able to show was his texture.

The qualities which have allowed him to rediscover his equilibrium at White Hart Lane are those which are exposed in tiny snippets, like in this extract from a Guardian interview in November 2014.
lamela_2013.jpg

“There was talk, not only in the summer, but in December – people had spoken about me in Italy and stuff,” Lamela recalled. “But I’d spoken with my family and my girlfriend and we were all convinced that my time would come, that once I got over this injury I would be able to show what I could do. We were never going to leave this challenge.”

True grit
Lamela, you see, is not an ordinary footballer. The 24-year-old is betrayed by both his appearance and his technical proficiency: he is neither a flouncing, flakey show-boater, nor someone overly-enamoured with his own ability. His failures appear to make him stronger and his appetite for self-improvement is, in this age of entitlement and exaggerated self-worth, quite remarkable.

Dive through social media for long enough, for instance, and you'll find the videos showing him on the pitch in deserted stadiums after games, dancing with footballs under the dimming floodlights and honing his technique. They're sequences which belong in stylised Hollywood montages, but are rarely seen in the three-dimensional world.
lamela_pochettino.jpg

But to appreciate Lamela’s reclamation project, it's important to appreciate the atmosphere within which it has occurred.

For a long time, he was unpopular at White Hart Lane. His errant touches would draw audible frustration from the stands and, actually, there were times when the relationship between the player and the supporters became distinctly uncomfortable – almost mutinous. When Marseille were rumoured to be close to signing him on loan in August 2015, his imminent departure seemed merciful. He had, by anybody's reckoning, suffered enough.

There’s a world outside
But then, that was to underestimate him and also, maybe, why that traumatic afternoon at El Monumental remains pertinent. English football culture is very insular and we consider our own Premier League, quite wrongly, to be an ultimate proving ground in which pressure and expectation collide at a terrifying apex.

But think of what Lamela endured and was exposed to – or, more specifically, consider the hardening effect of feeling such fierce footballing acrimony as a teenager? In sport, as they are in life, vivid experiences tend not only to linger in a person's consciousness, but also to shape their personality and guide their future.

Facing the same discontent, many other players would have left Tottenham at the earliest opportunity. Rather than pushing through the fire, they would have abandoned the challenge in England and re-glorified themselves in a more forgiving league. Lamela didn't and that, perhaps, is something too commonly overlooked.

While Pochettino and his coaching staff have had a profound influence on the player's trajectory, none of their instruction, direction or faith would have been worth anything had he himself not been receptive to it.

Change is good
And there has had to be a lot of change. In August 2013, after Lamela's move to England had been completed, journalist Paolo Bandini wrote: "Lamela still has room for improvement… most notably in the defensive side of the game. He was lax at times in tracking back for Roma, and it will be up to Villas-Boas whether to demand more from him in that department or simply position him in such a way that his responsibilities are reduced.”

When a perception like that exists, it's rarely corrected. Most players who fall into that category spend their entire careers being accommodated and are generally tolerated for who they are.

The counter-example that Lamela provides is rare. His improvement has been enabled by not only an unusual tolerance for adversity, but also a willingness to be broken down and rebuilt.
lamela_man_united.jpg

That malleability may be typical in more mundane players who regularly have to contort their shape for the sake of just having a career, but it's scarce in someone who was an Argentina international before his 20th birthday.

That kind of player floats to the top of the game, expects to be indulged and rarely takes on the mid-career challenge of altering his habits and traits. When asked to get fitter and work harder, that kind of player usually cannot call his agent quickly enough.

You’re so very special
It takes a special manager, then, to oversee such a change – but also a special person to be understand its necessity.

So Lamela is special. Maybe not in the dazzling Gareth Bale way that was anticipated but, through his range of career experiences and his personality blend, he has become something precious at White Hart Lane. He is the locking mechanism at the top of the formation, an attacking flourish when needed and also one of the hardest working flair players the Premier League has ever seen.

Maybe that fractious 2011 day in Buenos Aires meant nothing, maybe everything. Regardless, Lamela has allowed himself to be a symbol of the changing times at Tottenham: he is both his manager's and his own finest achievement.

Very enjoyable read. Cheers
 
Erik Lamela: How the winger has become the embodiment of Maurico Pochettino's plan at Tottenham Hotspur

Two years ago Lamela looked daunted by the physicality of the Premier League. Not any more.

Back when this season started, Erik Lamela could have been forgiven for feeling unwanted. Tottenham Hotspur had spent the summer talking to Juventus, Milan, Inter and Porto about a possible move for the man who had pulled up few trees in the 2014-15 season.

Had any club offered close to what Spurs spent on him in 2013 - £26million - he would surely have been sold. On the last day of the transfer window Marseille tried to sign him but the move collapsed in the final hours. Tottenham did not exactly look desperate to keep him at White Hart Lane.

Spurs fans, too, had been more divided about Lamela - sometimes inspirational, sometimes anonymous - than over any other player in the last few years. But not anymore.

There have been so many breakout seasons at Tottenham this year – Eric Dier, Dele Alli, Danny Rose - but few players have confounded their critics quite like Lamela. There can now be no doubt that he is indispensable to Mauricio Pochettino’s plans, and part of his best team. Spurs are a lesser side when he is not on the pitch.

This is because Lamela has remade himself this year. He is not the player that people expected him to be. He may have arrived with a reputation as an elusive tricky winger, but he has turned into something quite different.

Lamela is now the embodiment of Pochettino’s hard-working, high-pressing plan. He is their fiercest pursuer of the ball, the man who looks more desperate than anyone else to win it back within three seconds as Pochettino demands.

The quality on the ball has always been there but it is what Lamela does out of possession that has surprised so many. Along with Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen and Harry Kane, he forms Spurs’ first line of defence, and of all of those players he is the best at it. Like Alli, he has mastered the selfless inside run, dragging the opposition full-back with him, creating the space for his own full-back outside him.

Two years ago Lamela looked daunted by the physicality of the Premier League. Now he is not just up to speed but in fact stronger and tougher than most of his opponents. He has been working hard on his upper body strength and it shows on the pitch. “I like when the referees let us play for longer,” Lamela said in January, “I like it when there is a lot of friction.”

That is how it was against Manchester United, when Lamela delivered the best performance of his Spurs career so far. He scored the third goal, made the second, and started the move that led to the first. That came when Lamela forced his way between Morgan Schneiderlin and Chris Smalling, starting the move that ended up with Alli converting Eriksen’s cross.

In the win over United, Lamela won nine tackles, more than anyone else in the Premier League that weekend. He averages 3.25 tackles per 90 minutes played and 6.36 recoveries per 90 according to Opta, both of which his best numbers in his three seasons in England, and far better than most attacking midfielders.

Spurs are a different side with Lamela on the pitch; sharper, hungrier, far harder to play against. Pochettino has played this season perfectly but if he looks back there may be one mistake that stands out. Spurs were 2-1 up against Woolwich on 5 March and heading for first place. Lamela was flirting with a second yellow card so Pochettino took him off for Ryan Mason. Woolwich recovered their footing in the game and nine minutes later they had pulled it back to 2-2. Spurs have not been top since.

Lamela’s reputation first at River Plate then at Roma, was built on what he did with the ball. He is the only man to score a goal for Spurs with a rabona - against Asteras Tripolis in the Europa League in 2014 - and will be for some time. But this season he has understood the importance of end product, and has been delivering in those terms.

When Lamela swept in Danny Rose’s cross first time last Sunday, to put Spurs 3-0 up against United, it was his 10th goal of the campaign. Across his first two years at Spurs, the first ruined by injury, the second the learning curve, he scored five.

On top of those 10 goals Lamela has six assists, all in the Premier League. He swung in the free-kick that Toby Alderweireld headed in last Sunday, meaning he was involved in all three goals in that six-minute spell that blew Manchester United away. Perhaps the most important win of the season – 2-1 at Manchester City in February – came when Erik Lamela cut open the City defence with seven minutes left.

In one sense Spurs have finally got what they paid for. Lamela remains their record signing. In another, though, they now possess a player whose contribution is more complete than anyone could have expected. There are not many creative midfielders, in the era of 4-2-3-1, who defend with as much enthusiasm or selflessness. Nor are there many players who harry and tackle like Lamela who also have a rabona in their locker.

Of course Lamela is not perfect and there are times when he rushes his play, misjudges his touch or loses the ball. In that sense his slightly messy relentlessness, his willingness to try and try and try again until something finally comes off resembles compatriot Angel di Maria.

Like most Spurs players, Lamela has never played in the Champions League so is set to make his debut in the competition next season. There is now almost no prospect of him leaving White Hart Lane this summer. If any of Europe’s top clubs were to bid for him, Tottenham would demand to make a profit on the £26m that they spent on him. He has just over two years left on the deal he signed in 2013 and the likeliest outcome is that Spurs will extend his stay this summer.

“I always had my head at this club,” Lamela told the International Business Times after his man of the match performance on Sunday. “There was much talk at the beginning of the season that I could leave. But I felt that I owed something to Tottenham fans. This year, thank God, things have changed for me.” Yet he still gives the impression that there is more to come.

How Lamela has become the embodiment of Pochettino's plan at Spurs
 
He's really beginning to show an awful lot on the ball to go along with the workrate. Very encouraging.

That pass today was unbelievably well spotted and timed.
 
He's going to be a star next year. If he can add the 10+ league goals he did at Roma then even better.

Fight, determination, work rate, creativity. I want to be able to add goals to that next season.
 
He's going to be a star next year. If he can add the 10+ league goals he did at Roma then even better.

Fight, determination, work rate, creativity. I want to be able to add goals to that next season.
Has been incredibly unlucky this season, how many times has his shots hit the post? I think 10 league goals for him next season is very much achievable
 
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