This Tottenham star could be next year’s Riyad Mahrez
13Tottenham star Erik Lamela could blossom into a Riyad Mahrez type player for Spurs next season
Leicester City occupies the top spot in the Premier League in large part due to Riyad Mahrez’s sterling wing play. Tottenham attacker Erik Lamela could provide his club the same sort of impact next season if he continues his current rate of development.
I know that a certain number of Tottenham fans out there refuse to acknowledge Lamela’s improvement this season. They still want to talk about his 30 million pound price tag and the immense struggles he had adapting to life in England. If you are one of “those” Spurs fans, you might want to stop reading this piece now.
If you are one of the Tottenham fans who watches the team with some measure of objectivity, you can see that Lamela is a changed player this season. One can’t be certain what Mauricio Pochettino said to him over the off-season but he came into this year with a completely new mindset.
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Instead of solely focusing on skill and trickery with the ball, the Argentinian attacker has dedicated himself to hard work on the pitch. Those who watch Tottenham on a regular basis can easily see that Lamela has one of the side’s strongest work rates and he’s an absolute nightmare for the opposition. Sure, he might commit too many fouls for some fans, but you can’t argue that he isn’t one of the hardest working members of Pochettino’s high press.
In fairness, his work rate has been considerably better than his end product for much of the year. It’s fair to criticize him for his low conversion rate of scoring opportunities or even his propensity to give the ball away at inopportune times. He still has significant room for improvement in terms of his finishing and ability to hold on to the ball.
The good news for Lamela and his supporters is that those are parts of his game that he can certainly continue to develop. If he does moderately improve his finishing rate then he has a chance to become a true Premier League star.
Consider the fact even with his difficulty finishing chances, he’s posted a Whoscored.com player rating of 7.09 in 29 Premier League appearances this season. Finishing off just a couple more of his golden opportunities at goal would easily send that rating skyrocketing near 7.50. That’s just the sort of rarefied rating that stars like Leicester City’s Riyad Mahrez post in their best seasons.
In fairness, Mahrez is having the season of his life at the moment and is posting the highest Whoscored.com player rating in the Premier League at 7.81 through 32 appearances. It’s not a stretch to say that he’s been the Foxes’ most valuable player even over Jamie Vardy.
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What might interest you is that Mahrez posted a Whoscored.com player rating of just 7.16 last season. He was still an excellent player for Leicester, but the fact that he only managed to score four goals on the campaign prevented him from being a real star. That player rating, and scoring total, are nearly identical to what Lamela has posted for Tottenham this season.
Now let me be clear, I don’t necessarily think that Lamela is going to become Riyad Mahrez. The Algerian has exceptional talent and his finishing ability is far and away better than Lamela’s at the moment. However, I am saying that Lamela could have as large an impact on Tottenham next year as Mahrez has provided for the Foxes this season.
To do that, Lamela only needs to moderately improve his ability to put the ball in the back of the net. That’s a reasonable expectation for a player with so much talent. We’ve seen him score some outrageous goals during his time at Tottenham, so he really only needs to improve his conversion rate on more “ordinary” opportunities.
He doesn’t need to score 20 goals for Pochettino to provide Spurs the same boost Mahrez gives Leicester. A solid return of around 12 goals and 10 assists would give his team an immense lift. Combine that offense with his outstanding work rate and you’d have a player producing as much as any other attacker in the Premier League. Remember, Tottenham have more attacking talent to play around Lamela than Leicester have around Mahrez, that means he won’t need to shoulder as much of the offensive load.
Really Lamela’s performance against Manchester United was a prime example of what he can do for Spurs. He completely botched a golden scoring chance in the first half, but he didn’t let that miss define his effort on the day. Instead, he came back to play a brilliant second half that saw him register both a goal and assist. For me, he was the Man of the Match in the huge win over United.
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Erik Lamela haters should be shaking in their boots when thinking of what the Argentine player might blossom into next season. If he continues his current career development, he’ll be mentioned in the same breath as world-class attackers like Riyad Mahrez next season.