The young lad played his heart out against Sheriff. I know it was not a premier side, but his display was enough to make any coach sit up.
The day before the Newcastle game I would have put a lot of money down for Lamela to play, but he didn't.
So how is he going to answer our call? Simple.
By playing on the right hand side with Townsend on the left it stretches the play and stops teams from putting 2 or 3 men onto Andros. Pundits alike said how Anros was marked out of the Newcastle game, so why Defoe was brought on nobody knew.
Lamela was the right option all day long. We were getting into the scoring positions, but no one was running at them in the box, skipping past defender. He caused havoc against Sheriff and would have against the Toon.
Looking at the stats form the Newcastle game (which is the same for most games) almost 50% of the game is played through the middle.
If you look back at previous games last season this was very different.
It is widely known that we have a pitch width smaller than most teams, but it was never an excuse before. Now it is being brought up as an excuse, but why?
Each game we have congested the midfield with Siggy pulling in on the left, Townsend cutting in on the right and then Soldado coming out to get the ball. The narrow pitch is used as the excuse, but it’s the team that are playing in that way.
Keeping your position is surely still taught in football right?
With the display against Sheriff Pardew would not have ordered his players to all clamp down on Townsend, as Erik would have punished them.
We have the depth so we must use it, however we should also play those in-form players.
Highlighting how congested the centre of the park is just 4% of the game was played on the left and 4% on the right wing, it is those areas that we are struggling to boss. We get in those position (which Lamela loves) and Soldado will be where he's needed (in the box). Surely that's everything sorted then? We can then bring Lennon on as an impact player, imagine being a defender and seeing Lennon come on for the final 20 (it’s hell on earth).
I feel that come the next game AVB will be concerned about his critics and will have Lamela playing, if not why get on his back? Levy will be giving him a grilling and that's enough to make up for tens of thousands of fans and unlike us he can fire the guy.
Let’s not be another club that installs fear into our team, let’s install confidence, let them ALL know we are behind them.
COYS!!!
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