This article does absolutely nothing to put to bed what he does or doesn't do. I completely disagree with almost every part of it.
Bardi
even mentioned last nights game, I guess that's what has triggered the article, when he came on he buzzed around with the ball, ready to pass, but to who? Absolutely no option was open to him, so he had to hold on it, and go back to find a Spurs shirt to lay it off to. Why did this happen? We managed the game, we didn't over commit and do a "Spurs" and push for another goal and concede one in the process, we sured-up and whilst incredibly boring, it was arguably our best spell of the game, we turned the final 15mins into a training session and shut out a determined Watford, who didn't get a sniff during this spell, game over. Now this didn't play into the hands of Lamela who got on the ball with intent.
Comparison has been made of Son, well Son was largely shite last night (I love Son, so this is not a bashing session on him) but he's been quite poor last few games, looks a great threat looking to take players on but not delivering that final ball or shot and what started as an amazing opportunity lately has just fizzled out to nothing.
Lamela defines what Pochettino Spurs is, he is the snarling bastard, he is the press, he is everything that Son isn't. (Again I love Son). Last night we didn't press (nothing from Kane, nothing from Son, = Dele and Eriksen ain't pressing solo), because we didn't press Watford got on the ball and this is where out initial pressure came from. We didn't put any pressure on the ball at all. Lamela guarantees you this and I fucking love it.
Will pick
Bardi
up on "mysterious" injuries, what was fucking mysterious about them, don't tell me you are going down the faking his operations shit. His first injury he got after he signed with us was a broken vertebrae, just a minor run of the mill broken back injury that you see players jog off nowadays, come on mate, don't go down this road please. His injures have been really frustrating and have been long and ultimately defined his career with us.
I have a concern that we don't have cover for Eriksen, we have been so fortunate that he hasn't suffered any injury with us, but I have a hunch that he can cover his role, I'd love to see if he could do that. It might also enable to have Eriksen and Lamela on the pitch together, as I think this season in particular Eriksen has been more dangerous for us when he's dropped deep. I'd like to see Eriksen in deeper pockets, whilst pushing Lamela up as a 10. If Dembele is also dying slowly then this becomes a solution to the loss of Dembele (sheds tears). So that's Kane up top, Lamela behind, Dele to the left, Son (or Lucas) to the right with Eriksen behind (Eriksen backed up by Dier or Wanyama), FB's push on wide. One hell of a sexy diamond(s).
His identity is clear for me, he's our press trigger, he's our bastard, he's the player that slaps the likes of Rose and tells them "it's possible", he's the player that has no doubts in his head, he's creative, and he's a big game player. He can play as a 10, he can play on inside right, he's also been asked to play CF (which I don't think worked at all). Defensively he tracks back, if we are sticking with the munchkin as RB next year then Lamela has to start to cover the RB frauds inefficiencies, something that I'm not sure Lucas will do. This is his identity, no other player typifies Tottenham's high pressing, aggressive and creative football than Lamela, he is Pochettinho's bastard Tottenham, something we've missed last couple of games too.