Re: Barclay's Premier League '15-'16 discussion V8

by B-Mac Thu 14 Jan 2016, 00:59

Firenze wrote:round of applause for defoe btw

comes back to the PL from the MLS at 33 and is smashing them in

PL legend tbh

naw he's a pos

Giovinco>>>>>>>

by Great Leader Sprucenuce Thu 14 Jan 2016, 01:02

Giovinco couldn't handle a wet and windy night in Leicester imo.

by Curtinho Thu 14 Jan 2016, 01:18

Joe Allen has been our best midfielder under Klopp by a fair margin and should be starting against United...should have started today. Poor choice not to start him IMO.

by Curtinho Thu 14 Jan 2016, 01:19

Also, Mignolet is a trainwreck and it's a joke that anyone thinks he's good enough for Liverpool. If they really extend him I don't even know.

by BarrileteCosmico Thu 14 Jan 2016, 02:43

People in this thread like to laugh a lot at La Liga refs but this is just, wow Laughing

by Kick Thu 14 Jan 2016, 03:42

Was that given or not?

by Winter is Coming Thu 14 Jan 2016, 03:46

Looking at reports. It wasn't given.

by Kick Thu 14 Jan 2016, 04:21

Obvious pen.

by free_cat Thu 14 Jan 2016, 11:56

Incredibly obvious.

by Hapless_Hans Thu 14 Jan 2016, 12:11

Meh. Wasn't even a tackle. Merely a power version of doing the limbo IMO.

by BarrileteCosmico Fri 15 Jan 2016, 22:20

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/jan/14/tottenham-gareth-bale-money-real-madrid-manchester-united-liverpool

Bale went to Real Madrid in June 2013 for between £77m and £86m depending on who you believe. In response Spurs signed seven players, funded by the sales of Bale, Tom Huddlestone, Clint Dempsey and Steven Caulker. As Paulinho, Nacer Chadli, Roberto Soldado, Étienne Capoue, Vlad Chiriches, Christian Eriksen and Érik Lamela were reeled in in quick succession Garth Crooks, master of the pithy one-liner, suggested Spurs had “sold Elvis and bought The Beatles”.

By the autumn this had changed. It turned out Spurs had swapped the King for S Club 7. Wasted! Bungled! Thrown away! Lamela, Capoue, Soldado, Paulinho and Chadli played in the 6-0 and 5-0 defeats against Manchester City and Liverpool that did for Villas-Boas. The conviction that Daniel Levy and/or then technical director Franco Baldini had chucked away the family silver in a spasm of half-cocked moneyball was pretty much universal.

As ever the truth is less clear-cut. By now the players involved have all, with one exception, either settled in or moved on at a decent price. Paulinho, the worst of the lot, was sold to Guangzhou Evergrande for a high-fives-in-the-boardroom £9.9m. Soldado remains the real disaster, sold to Villarreal for a £16m loss after 10 league goals in two years. On the plus side Chadli looks £7m well spent. Eriksen, despite some poor form, is a hit. Lamela has been either scratchy or sublime. He’s still only 23. On Wednesday night the Spurs fans sang his name. He’s a grower.

At the end of which the Bale splurge adds up to around £70m spent on Lamela, Eriksen and Chadli. It’s not exactly great business. But it’s not £50m on Fernando Torres. It’s not Manchester United’s champagne-supernova binge of the past two years. Plus, as the Premier League’s best players are lured periodically to the Iberian Old Firm, it turns out nobody has managed the subsequent transfer splurge that well.

In 2009 United sold Cristiano Ronaldo and converted him into Antonio Valencia, Gabriel Obertan, Chris Smalling, Bebé, Phil Jones and Ashley Young over the next two years. In 2014 Liverpool spent a Luis Suárez-sized £75m on Mario Balotelli, Divock Origi, Dejan Lovren, Lazar Markovic and Emre Can. Which is certainly a very expensive way of buying Emre Can.

Next to this the Bale splurge now looks like relatively sane business.

Thought this was pretty insightful

by Art Morte Fri 15 Jan 2016, 22:42

Eriksen and Chadli were definitely brilliant pieces of business. I'm still not sure Lamela is or will be good enough for Tottenham. Capoue has been good for Watford this season, btw.

It's not very insightful to say we've wasted a lot of money in recent years. Everyone knows that.

As for United, the article chooses not to mention that they also bought Hernandez and De Gea in the same time period as the players it does mention. Hernandez was a pretty good success for his first three seasons at United. Seemed to always score off the bench. De Gea doesn't need a mention. Valencia used to be a much more important player for them and Smalling is that now. Jones and Young have been decent servants, not exactly flops like Soldado and Paulinho.

by McAgger Fri 15 Jan 2016, 22:44

Rodgers and the Committee thought it was a better decision to sign Luis Alberto who had never played in a top division before over Eriksen Laughing

That one still hurts.

by CBarca Fri 15 Jan 2016, 22:49

Lamela has been one of Tottenham's best players this season Laughing

Eriksen is the one underachieving atm. He's still a good player for Tottenham but right now he's missing that end product that made him so good for Tottenham in previous seasons. Chadli has been injured for most of this season, but has been a good buy for his price--no doubt about that. He'll continue to be a valuable substitute as well even if he can't nail down a starting spot, which seems likely judging by how great Dele Alli has been.

EDIT: re: the Soldado deal, he actually only cost 13m pounds up front, with the rest based on performances. While I'm assuming he did meet some of the goals, it's likely that he didn't in actuality cost 26m and therefore be a 16m loss. I don't know exactly how much Valencia made off of his performances, but judging by his performances, I would say not that much. Worth mentioning anyhow, he's probably closer to a 3-10m pound loss than 16m.

by Art Morte Fri 15 Jan 2016, 22:51

CBarca wrote:Lamela has been one of Tottenham's best players this season

Well, could you name the players who have been better? Because I can think of quite a few.

by BarrileteCosmico Fri 15 Jan 2016, 22:55

No you can't Laughing

Go to any spurs forum and read and ask around, Lamela has been a top 3 player for the Spurs this season.

by Art Morte Fri 15 Jan 2016, 22:59

A top-3? No way, man. Kane, Alderweireld, Alli and Dier at least have to be above Lamela - who still lacks too much end-product for his advanced role.

by CBarca Fri 15 Jan 2016, 23:00

I would say Dembele and then a choice between Alderweireld/Alli. Kane would be a popular choice, but I would put him on par with Lamela. Dembele you could throw out of there on account of being injured, I'm including him because when he's been fit, he's been Tottenham's best player.

Lamela has been quite sensational this season. Scary thing is you can tell he's not playing near his full potential yet either.

by BarrileteCosmico Fri 15 Jan 2016, 23:01

I agree on Alderweireld and Dier. Kane and Alli not so much, Kane spent the first half of the season dry and only recently has been able to return to form (and still not his previous season form) and Alli has also been more inconsistent than Lamela, which is to be expected, he's quite young.

by Art Morte Fri 15 Jan 2016, 23:08

Alli still has more goals and assists than Lamela, so I don't know how he can be called more inconsistent. I'd expect more end-product from Lamela, either creating or scoring. And Kane is the 6th highest scorer in the league right now, there's no way his season is on par with Lamela.

Tottenham obviously have a good thing going on and Lamela is a part of that, but he should be producing more game-winning moments, imo. Otherwise either Chadli or Son should have their chance in his place to show what they can do in a few full games.

by BarrileteCosmico Fri 15 Jan 2016, 23:22

Goals and assists Laughing

Just to drive my point home here are the top 3 players for each of the last 10 or so games that Lamela has played in according to a spurs forum:

Leicester City: 1. Lloris 2. Lamela 3. Vertonghen

Everton: Not in the podium

Watford: 1. Lamela 2. Kane 3. Alli

Norwhich: 1. Lamela 2. Tripier 3. Lloris

Southampton: Not in podium

Newcastle: 1. Lamela 2. Rose 3. Dier

Monaco: 1. Lamela 2. No one else, almost unanimous

West Brom: 1. Lamela, 2. Lloris 3. Dembele/Alderweireld

Chelsea 1. Lamela 2. No one else, almost unanimous

Arsenal: 1. Lamela 2. Alli 3. Dembele

by CBarca Fri 15 Jan 2016, 23:33

Lamela doesn't look like one of Spurs' best players when you look at goals and assists, but if you watch the games, you understand why he's been one of Tottenham's best players. I commend him, he went from being a pushover and a defensive liability to someone who Pochettino will switch over to whatever side he think is defensively weak (because Lamela will instantly improve it). Lamela is inconsistent yet in his end product and doesn't always effect games offensively as much as he should, but in every other facet of the game he's been incredible. Even when it comes to end product, he's been pretty decent--certainly much better than previous seasons.

He's not yet one of the best AM's in the league, certainly not. He will get there though.

If anyone should be making way for Chadli or Son right now, it's Eriksen. I think that this is just a rough patch though and I like that Poch is continuing to start Eriksen every week.

by Art Morte Sat 16 Jan 2016, 09:28

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Goals and assists Just to drive my point home here are the top 3 players for each of the last 10 or so games that Lamela has played in according to a spurs forum:

Leicester City: 1. Lloris 2. Lamela 3. Vertonghen

Everton: Not in the podium

Watford: 1. Lamela 2. Kane 3. Alli

Norwhich: 1. Lamela 2. Tripier 3. Lloris

Southampton: Not in podium

Newcastle: 1. Lamela 2. Rose 3. Dier

Monaco: 1. Lamela 2. No one else, almost unanimous

West Brom: 1. Lamela, 2. Lloris 3. Dembele/Alderweireld

Chelsea 1. Lamela 2. No one else, almost unanimous

Arsenal: 1. Lamela 2. Alli 3. Dembele

What's so funny about goals and assists? They win you games. And Lamela is a forward after all.

And about those fan player ratings, please. They've taken a liking to him, so they like to talk him up and treat him nice right now. For instance, that Norwich game where Lamela is apparently voted first; Kane scored two goals and Alli was the official MotM, yet somehow neither are in that fans' poll, but Lamela tops it. The Arsenal game, Kane scored Tottenham's only goal but isn't in the fans' top-3, but Lamela tops it. The West Brom game, Alli scored the only goal, but isn't in the top-3 while Lamela tops it - even after not even being on the field for the last half an hour.

Yet somehow Lamela tops the fans' list in 7 in their last 10 games, despite having one goal and one assist in the Premier League since the start of November. That's like calling Lallana our best player, because he has a great attitude and works hard both ways, but fails to produce the truly game-changing moments.

by Vibe Sat 16 Jan 2016, 10:52

Lamela is not a forward though.

by Art Morte Sat 16 Jan 2016, 11:07

Forward as a winger or an AM. An attacking player who can be expected to score and create goals.

by Helmer Sat 16 Jan 2016, 13:08

The truth is, Lamela was hyped to no end before he joined Spurs and he has bad first few seasons. Now he is peforming better than his first 1-2 seasons and fans are simply happy that a player with such a price tag is performing good again. And that is the reason his performances are being rated so highly by fans in every match :coffee:

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