Lamela

[danielneeds]

Imagine if Walker could put a ball in like Eriksen. Some player he would be then.

The thing is crossing is one of the most easy facets of the game to practice and improve upon - Beckham wasn't naturally good at crossing he practiced more than anyone. Walker could easily spend 45 mins a day having someone roll the ball into him on the run and practice it, and who's to say he isn't doing this? I think I saw some quotes where he said he knew he needed to improve his final ball.

 

[$hoguN]

I wish I could agree about that, but I don't. I think Walker had a little spell of 4 or 5 games where he defended solidly and didn't do anything daft, which was an improvement, but creatively I don't think he's contributed very much at all. The trouble is he gets himself into some great positions and it catches the eye but the end product is invariably woeful. Even yesterday, he seems to look up, see Adebayor and another player in the pull back position and then just whacked it straight ahead where we had no-one. Miraculously their defender did the job under no pressure from any of our players

Walker's problem is that he usually wants to stop running and evaluate his options in the box before crossing which is totally wrong. With his pace and ability he should look to overlap and deliver the ball into a dangerous area regardless of who he can see. By doing that he will force more own goals and also encourage the likes of Ade and Soldado to gamble on him delivering a good ball.

 

[danielneeds]

I think Lennon will play against City and he'll tear Demechelis a new one. What worries me is we need Sandro back and fit. We may have got away with his absense up until now but against the better teams we really miss him.

I wouldn't play Sandro against Citeh now, there is no way he can be match-fit. You can get away with it with Vertonghen, because centre backs do so little running in a game compared to all other outfield positions, but not in the midfield.

 

[$hoguN]

Capoue is fit.

Turns out you have the same taste in men as SpursKing.

 

[dagraham]

I wish I could agree about that, but I don't. I think Walker had a little spell of 4 or 5 games where he defended solidly and didn't do anything daft, which was an improvement, but creatively I don't think he's contributed very much at all. The trouble is he gets himself into some great positions and it catches the eye but the end product is invariably woeful. Even yesterday, he seems to look up, see Adebayor and another player in the pull back position and then just whacked it straight ahead where we had no-one. Miraculously their defender did the job under no pressure from any of our players.

And Rose is invariably just as bad. Since he came back there have been numerous occasions when he's had time to look up and try and pick out a team mate, instead he buries his head and just drills an aimless cross into a supposed dangerous area. The fact is two yards from the goal is less damerous than 8 yards from the goal if that's where our player is stood.

Recently I highlighted the way Kolorov on a few occasions gets into similar positions but always looks and tries to deliver to a team mate. Zabaleta is the same. These two have 9 assists between them. Our two full backs have 2. This despite having people like Soldado and Adenbayor to aim for.

Agree in general about Walker's attacking play, although in fairness I think its been a little bit better recently. He at least has progressed from regularly sending the ball out of play on the far side to whipping it in across the box.

I've said before, if i was on the staff at Spurs i'd get Walker to study Sagna's game. The best and most consistent crosser of the ball from full back in the PL. Bang on the money, in between keeper and defensive line every time.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

In fairness both of our fullbacks were heavily involved in goals yesterday. Hopefully with the side starting to settle they can be more confident getting forward.

100% agree about the top part though, couldn't say it better myself Townsend, Lamela and Erikson all offer direct goal threats and are more than capable of setting each other up. Woud be such a good front line with Adebayor up top.

Rose did well, but lets be honest, you would think that pass to Adebayor was an absolute no brainer - if you hadn't seen what many of our players have done at times that is - but the credit for doing it none the less. He has wasted numerous other opportunities to contribute something tangible though.

Walker's was a cross that got extremely lucky, I'd much prefer he actually decided to try and find one of our players.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on that one. He put the ball between the keeper and the defender on purpose IMO. It's an absolute nightmare to defend because defenders hate defending when they're facing their goal and can't be sure Ade/Chadli aren't ghosting in behind them. I think Walker knew that.

Personally I would much rather, if options are available he tried to find them than whacks the ball in the hope that a defender will oblige. I think that's why Zabaleta has 5 assists and Walker has 1 ?

Could you flag up any glaring examples of Walker showing signs of improvement in his attacking prowess in the last few games ? Genuine question.

 

[Spursidol]

It's inverted forward/wide - not winger - and that was his default at Roma loads. Go through Roma's season on whoscored.com. It is a forward position, but that is how it was often set up, in a 4231. I'm sure he effectively became an auxiliary striker in that structure, just as he could for us in the same structure, just as inverted wide forwards often do (Hulk, Ronaldo, Bale etc) as Chadli was supposed to be yesterday (according to Sherwood pre match).

They way you've set it up there is no width from attacking positions, which isn't obligatory at all, but I thought was purpose of this exercise.

Think we are all agreed that Lamela was playing as a right sided auxillary forward at Roma, with a creative AM behind the striker, so I'd think the best formation would be :

Eriksen
Lamela Adebayor

Question then becomes who the opposition is and whether you feel the need for 3 CM's behind or 2 CM's with a winger to provide extra width and attacking menace.

Playing 3 CM's (currently would be Dembele, Bentaleb and a DM) means a reliance on Walkeer and Rose to provide the width - although you rightly say their assists to date have been low, I think that reflects the very few goals scored under AVB (less than a goal a game, including was it 3 penalties ?) - which I think they could do.

If a winger is added, I'd prefer Townsend as he adds speed and can put in a decent cross - under the inverted winger system he was being told that to play a posession game it was better to shoot rather than pass/croos (less chance of loosing posession), but get him back to the first game he played this season against Dinamo Tiblisi where he scored one and got 2 assists and I think you see the pre-AVB Townsend with crosses and cut backs as well as shooting.

So to conclude I'd suggest either :

DM
Dembele Bentalleb
Eriksen
Lamela Adebayor

or the more attacking :

CM1 CM2/DM
Eriksen
Lamela Adebayor Townsend


If Adebayor is out, then to give Soldado a physical presence, I think you need to play Chadli somewhere

 

[Spurs_Bear]

It's inverted forward/wide - not winger - and that was his default at Roma loads. Go through Roma's season on whoscored.com. It is a forward position, but that is how it was often set up, in a 4231. I'm sure he effectively became an auxiliary striker in that structure, just as he could for us in the same structure, just as inverted wide forwards often do (Hulk, Ronaldo, Bale etc) as Chadli was supposed to be yesterday (according to Sherwood pre match).

They way you've set it up there is no width from attacking positions, which isn't obligatory at all, but I thought was purpose of this exercise.

No thanks, I'll go by the conversation @Spursidol had with a Roma fan.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on that one. He put the ball between the keeper and the defender on purpose IMO. It's an absolute nightmare to defend because defenders hate defending when they're facing their goal and can't be sure Ade/Chadli aren't ghosting in behind them. I think Walker knew that.

Absolutely agree, put it into the danger area.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

Capoue is fit.

Ghey...

 

[danielneeds]

Absolutely agree, put it into the danger area.

There is no right or wrong on the flash it across goal, or pull it back to team-mate. It depends on having a relationship with your team-mates. If you have that natural predator like a Shearer you know will be busting a gut to get on the end of a drilled cross you do that, similarly if you have players who look to drop off for the pullback, you do that. What Citeh obviously have is a great understanding between their players, we lack that fluency in the final third.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

Personally I would much rather, if options are available he tried to find them than whacks the ball in the hope that a defender will oblige. I think that's why Zabaleta has 5 assists and Walker has 1 ?

Could you flag up any glaring examples of Walker showing signs of improvement in his attacking prowess in the last few games ? Genuine question.

Do you think he was anticipating Chadli making another run though? I don't think he whacked it in the hope it went off a defender.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Do you think he was anticipating Chadli making another run though? I don't think he whacked it in the hope it went off a defender.

You want me to interpret the workings of the mind that invented the sonic overhead ball diversion clap ?

 

[Spurs_Bear]

You want me to interpret the workings of the mind that invented the sonic overhead ball diversion clap ?

You'll be laughing on the other side of your face when that's released in the new Fifa...

 

[mattyspurs]

Do you think he was anticipating Chadli making another run though? I don't think he whacked it in the hope it went off a defender.

It's a good ball to play regardless as @Kendall says. Its a percentage ball. Defenders can get nervous as is what happened yesterday, or the attackers could be coming in. I haven't got a problem with them

 

[hodsgod]

Playing with inverted wingers worked fine for Bayern last season. The reason AVB failed was due to being too cautious and poor team selections rather than a flawed system.

We don't play in Germany, and we don't have the players that Munich have.

 

[Scarlet57]

Dovahkiin has done some whoring, apparently he's still having trouble learning English. How difficult is it to learn English if you grow up speaking Spanish and know (I assume) your was round Italian as well? There's a lot of similarities.

 

[dagraham]

Dovahkiin has done some whoring, apparently he's still having trouble learning English. How difficult is it to learn English if you grow up speaking Spanish and know (I assume) your was round Italian as well? There's a lot of similarities.

Que?

 

[Ghost Hardware]

Dovahkiin has done some whoring, apparently he's still having trouble learning English. How difficult is it to learn English if you grow up speaking Spanish and know (I assume) your was round Italian as well? There's a lot of similarities.

Spanish and Italian are both Latin based languages so picking up Italian as a Spanish speaker isn't toooo difficult, English on the other hand isn't, so its a lot more complicated picking up the basics. If Lamela is unhappy and wants out he will hardly be putting a lot of effort into learning the language. Can't blame the kid really, he shouldn't have come to us.