Lamela lights up lacklustre Limasoll display

Article by Joe Fish

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It is perhaps too early to say that there is light at the end of the Erik Lamela tunnel, but he certainly shone in his cameo on our latest European venture.

Tottenham began what is sure to be another: “I’d rather not be playing in it”– “well we might as well try and win it” Europa League campaign with a 2-1 come-from-behind victory over AEL Limassol in Cyprus on Thursday.

In what was the first leg of a playoff, which precedes the group stage, which precedes the five two-legged knockout rounds of a never-ending competition, Spurs were behind until shortly after the 71st-minute introduction of Lamela.

The £30m man had only been on the pitch eight minutes and Spurs had turned the game around courtesy of goals from Roberto Soldado and Harry Kane.

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Soldado squeezed a powerful volley in at the near post following an inch-perfect dink over the top from Lamela, and the Argentine was supplier again as his dribble and pass released Kane to shoot under the goalkeeper.

Our club-record signing also twice came close to getting on the scoresheet himself and perhaps would have if Nacer Chadli had better directed his cutback.

Nineteen minutes. Two assists. Three points. One man-of-the-match award. This was exactly the type of performance that Lamela needed early on in his season.

Tests will come much sterner than the six-time Cypriot champions, but Lamela, for the first time in his Spurs career, made the difference between victory and defeat and that should give him great confidence heading into the weekend.

I am wary not to get ahead of myself, but I can attribute this premature excitement to the wanting to take some sort of positive from what was an otherwise lacklustre display against supposed European minnows.

Mauricio Pochettino made seven changes to the side that edged out West Ham United on Saturday, welcoming back two World Cup stars in the process.

While these fixtures are a good opportunity for those pre-season latecomers such as Jan Vertonghen, Paulinho and Mousa Dembele to regain match sharpness, the chopping and changing from Thursday to Sunday is not ideal.

It is not going to help the team quickly adapt to Pochettino’s shape and tactics, or allow players to establish new roles and familiarise partnerships.

Juggling continental and domestic competition reduces the amount of time that managers have on the training pitch and therefore Pochettino may be wiser to stick with a starting nucleus of nine or 10 for the foreseeable future.

There will be plenty of occasions later in the season when he can rotate and utilise the big squad at his disposal, but why give players game time now to keep them happy, when several of them could leave before the end of the window?

The amount of changes led to a largely disjointed performance. There was little movement ahead of the halfway line and our hold-up play and crossing was poor.

Fringe players who you were looking for good performances from were repeating the same bad habits. Lewis Holtby was often too deep to influence the game and too content to go sideways with possession, while Andros Townsend showed little to indicate that there is any more end product than before.

I expected an unfamiliar back four to look a little ropey at times, but stand-in captain Hugo Lloris was probably busier than he thought he would be in goal.

Maybe I am over analysing the negatives as much as I am accentuating the positives of Lamela, but it was a pretty dire watch until the last 20 minutes.

Nevertheless, two wins from two under Pochettino and a Lamela performance to get cautiously optimistic about. Let’s hope there is no hangover on Sunday. COYS.

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