Could Erik Lamela be doing more for Tottenham Hotspur?

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Is the Tottenham Hotspur man doing enough for his side?

Erik Lamela has been something of a Marmite footballer for a while now, but there seems to be more hate than love coming his way from Tottenham Hotspur fans lately.

The Argentine hardly helped his popularity by missing a penalty in the 2-0 win over Manchester City last weekend, after refusing to let Son Heung-min take it.

But even without that, the 24-year-old seems to be losing some of the supporters he had worked so hard to win over following an inauspicious start to life at Tottenham.

And one look at his Premier League statistics so far might offer an indication as to why he seems to be struggling.to impress both the fans and Mauricio Pochettino, who has dropped him for three of Tottenham’s seven Premier League games.

It is no secret that Lamela’s off-the-ball work has come on a great deal under Pochettino, and 18 ball recoveries, combined with 11 successful tackles from 13, should illustrate that he remains an industrious player for the Lilywhites.

But in possession, the ex-Roma winger, who has scored one and set up one in the league, remains something of a liability, having created one goalscoring chance in over seven hours of Premier League football and managed six shots on target – or one every 71.6 minutes.

Being dispossessed on 16 occasions does not speak volumes for him either. In fact, only 13 players in the division been dispossessed by the opposition more than him.

There are certain attributes which cannot be measured in numbers or statistics, such as Lamela’s high-energy pressing which proved very effective on Sunday.

His attitude and industry is excellent, but his end product and creativity, at the moment, is far from where it needs to be for an attacking player – let alone one which cost £30 million.