Lamela vs Townsend - The Stats

I must admit, I wanted Lennon kept and played as first choice, but I think I was wrong, he's past it now

Our most underrated player of the last decade though.

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Corluka wins that title for me.

Watching the first 20 or so I was pretty worried to be honest, despite us having a good chance with Dier and them not really creating much, I thought we were struggling to get the ball out of our half, and the lack of a pacey out ball up top allowed them to camp us in.

The battling qualities of Lamela certainly helped us turn the screw in the middle part of the game, and put real pressure on them, but I never felt he would get beyond Kane and score. He had a glorious chance to run at them on one one one on an occasion but there waant the pace to punish them.

Son's introduction is blamed for us losing control, but it's very possible that his pace and stamina would have seen us test them with the ball in behind more often if in from the off. No guarantee of that of course

^

He had a glorious chance to run at them one on one on an occasion


Obviously

Analog,

You have to realise, I haven’t created any articles claiming Townsend is this or that, I haven’t initiated any Townsend Vs Lamela debates – I have simply responded in defence of Townsend where I believe he has been unfairly mocked.

And as I said on this or another article, the comparison in stats from June last year actually came about because an OP wrote an article about how good Kane, Eriksen and Lamela’s stats were – and Chronic then sarcastically asked how they compared to Townsend..and it was only then (at Chronic’s request) that HRH produced the same comparison for Townsend which, at that point in time, put his stats as better than Lamela (can you blame me for using them about the boards after that? ).

Now as I have said, I’m not particularly a stats man – I don’t think judging a player on say, 6 or 7 touches of a football, gives a full picture of how much they influence a football match. Some players are more influential in the build up play – but because their stats table is lower – does this mean they are less effective? Not in my book. I judge on what I see – not on some figures based on single touches of a football.

To summarise, you obviously rate Lamela as a better footballer than Townsend – for me it is completely the other way around. And I just would like to see Townsend be given the same opportunities and chances to impress as Lamela has, i.e. if he has a quiet half or an average game – allow him to finish a game or give him a start in the next. I’m only saying this as I think it will benefit us as a team and inevitably improve our overall results.

I hope this puts the debate on a better footing rather than some of the playground squabbles and responses that may have crept in....

I thought son was the right player to come on, personally. Probably would have taken Lamela off as well due to him potentially getting a red, that being said in hindsight I think Alli would have been a good option to take off.

Chicken

It's a game of opinions, personally I'm glad that Poch doesn't rate Townsend

To be fair, they may have had a final push anyway. We had played on Thursday and had been pretty relentless for a good hour or so of the game.

If Lloris makes the save he should have, then we almost certainly win the game at that point.



If Giroud had taken either of the two golden opportunities to head in when Lamela was still on the pitch we wouldn't have been in the lead regardless. We were always vulnerable to a goal throughout

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I don't think he is match sharp, no, but if he wasn't fit he wouldn't be in Poch's squad.