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Spurs fans hail Lamela

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Tottenham fans have made their voices heard on social media by hailing Erik Lamela for his performance in the 2-1 defeat to Leicester City on Saturday. 

The Argentine was instrumental for Mauricio Pochettino’s side in the away loss, and it was his incisive pass that carved open the Foxes and set Son Heung-min on his way to assisting Harry Kane’s opener before second half goals from Ricardo Pereira and James Maddison overturned Spurs’ lead.

That ball aside, Lamela was sharp from start to finish, and looked every inch the player that he has so often promised to become since he signed from Roma back in 2013.

The 27-year-old has now been trusted to start in every one of Spurs’ six Premier League games so far this term, and continued to repay his manager’s faith with a performance that fans were raving about as “sensational” and “incredible”.

Here are some of the best tweets.

On paper, Lamela isn’t doing too much differently compared to how he was performing last season.

Prior to Saturday’s match, he had averaged 1.6 shots, 1.2 key passes, and 1.2 successful dribbles per match in the Premier League, as per Whoscored.

In comparison, during the entirety of last season, when he featured 19 times, he averaged 1.5 shots, 1.2 key passes, and 1.1 successful dribbles.

The improvements are there, but they’re marginal.

Similarly, his pass completion rate last term was 83.2%, whereas this season it has crept up to 83.9%.

And yet, for all of these minor advancements, his Whoscored rating has rocketed from 6.77 to 7.18.

So what’s changed?

Well, for one thing, it would seem that Lamela is seeing more of the ball, averaging 31 passes this season, compared to 22.2 last term.

It doesn’t take a genius to see that the more you have possession, the more you can influence a game.

Perhaps more impressive and immediately noticeable, however, is the improvement in his end product.

So far this season, Lamela has scored twice and registered an assist.

Throughout the entirety of last season, he only managed four goals and two assists.

If he continues at the rate he is currently performing at, he will smash through those figures by the beginning of November.

Whatever the secret to his newfound form is though, Spurs fans will just be hoping that he can keep it going all campaign.

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