Lucas Moura: Is he the answer?

It's obviously too early to judge whether or not his move to the Premier League has been a success.
He's barely been here for over a month and has only started the odd game, here and there.
The glimpses of quality that we've seen have been encouraging, but it's nothing more than that at the moment.

So what am I on about, then? Our ongoing winger issue and overall lack of pace in attack.
It's been one of the problems that Pochettino has faced at Spurs and hasn't really overcome.
Lennon, Townsend, Chadli, N'Jie and N'Koudou were all given a go and then swiftly dispatched.
Traditional wingers and the inverted variety failed to produce results, either from the start or from the bench.

So what's different with our new Brazilian signing and why does he seem to fit in a little better already?
Versatility, movement, workrate and fluidity, in my opinion.
He's happy to switch around as part of our attacking four and looks natural in positions that others flounder in.
He doesn't need to stick to one role to feel comfortable and that's a necessity for our forwards.

I'll be happy if Moura fulfils his potential at Spurs and we get to see plenty of him at the new ground.
Even if he doesn't make it though, I think that he's offered us a valuable insight in the transfer market.
Will this see an end to our quest to find another wide man with a random N on the start of his name? Probably not.

 

I think the arrival of Neymar and Mbappe resulted in Moura being discarded, less marketable and a smaller investment. We got ourselves a player who has just dissapeared under the hype surrounding the aforementioned two.

The Arab owners are having a Cold War and whilst they are busy measuring dick sizes, we got ourselves a gem. I don't think there's much of a catch to the whole Moura situation. Obviously not being picked has resulted in a lack of match fitness but with every game time minute he is getting, his natural ability is shining through.

 

Moura is quality, I think that's the one thing we knew when purchasing him. He wasn't an unknown young player from an inferior league trying to step up and he wasn't an established half decent player we decided to take a punt on, he is a player that's played at the very top and alongside some of the very best there is so his pedigree is immediately at the upper echelon of the footballing chain.

Not getting game time because your club signed Neymar and Mbappe was in no way a representation of how good or bad he is, just more of a case of how unlucky he became to have the 3rd best player in world football and France's next big hope join at the same time.

Back before Lucas joined PSG, after Neymar, he was heralded as the second biggest thing in Brazil and it persuaded PSG to splash £40m on him at a time where £40m was an insane amount of money in the footballing world.

In 229 games for PSG he contributed towards 96 goals (46 scored, 50 assisted) and already in his short time at Spurs, in which he's yet to even feature for 90 minutes, he's contributed to 4 goals in 6 games (1 scored, 3 assisted).

It's already been frustrating that Poch hasn't utilised him more such has been his impact in the games he has played in. It's a sign of what he has to offer and once he's fully 100% match fit, I imagine it'll be very hard keeping him out of the XI for prolonged periods.

We have five exceptional attacking mids and I fully expect all five to get sufficient game time at the club over the course of the coming seasons so long as all remain fit and remain here at the club. It's an exciting time.

 

Moura is class and I think when we play against park the bus teams he and the other midfielders interlink well and are hard to mark .looks a very good buy for the money he has all the skills and his workrate so far has been excellent

 

Too early for this, PNP
Oozes class and excitement even without being fully matchfit.
Maybe I’ll be proved wrong, but he needs to be given til next autumn for this question to be asked IMHO.

 

Erm...

 

So why the thread...... ?? Answering your own questions? I do that as I prefer the answers

 

Because I think that he shows what kind of winger can make it in our current system, whether or not he does it himself.
I wanted to see what other people thought about it, as the international break is utterly dull!

 

He is not a classic wing player though,
is he. In his few appearances so far
Moura has at times actually attacked
down the middle.

 

A nice little trick to mix it up and avoid predictability is for the 3 behind Kane to switch places through the game.

 

He's looked a little slow. He got caught twice by Swansea defenders, when he was ahead of them, on Saturday. Better fitness and knowing where his colleagues are going to be, will help that. However, he's going to have to work hard and improve his finishing and pressing to displace our existing options. I hope that he can.

Buying in January is tricky, especially from a foreign league. Let's hope to see him flying in NWHL next season. He's a step up from GKN and Clinton.

 

Something never said about Trump

 

Back in Poch's first season I made a comment about how Poch's attacking trio were actually three different types of Number 10: Eriksen the South American definition who sits between midfield and attack who sets up teammates, Chadli the Italian definition who drifts in from the flank to score, and Lamela the Spanish definition who plays out wide but cuts inside to set up his teammates.

Fast forward two and a half seasons and we're not only sticking to a similar model, but have also added to it
Eriksen is still the South American style who pulls the strings between midfield and attack
Lamela is still the Spanish definition who cuts in from wide areas to create for his teammates
Son is now the Italian definition who drifts in from the flank to score
Dele is the English definition who makes late runs into the box to score
Moura, meanwhile, is the Barca definition of the role who uses pace and dribbling to create chances for goals or assists

To use like-for-like comparisons, Eriksen plays in a similar style to Totti or Rui Costa (yes, I know neither of them are South American!), Son/Chadli are similar to Del Piero or Baggio, Lamela similar to Di Maria, Dele to Craig Bellamy, while Moura's closest to a player I better not name because the Gooner lurkers would miss a remarkably straightforward point to manufacture a field day for themselves (sort of like on Old606 when I said Huddlestone was similar in style of play to Pirlo, which apparently proved all Spurs fans are "deluded" rather than "know something about football")

 

Quality

 

Wants to get his head down and try to go past players - I think he's exactly what we needed. Quality-wise we'll see but honestly my first impressions have been pretty positive. He's giving me more of the Son-vibe (where I feel confident from day 1 that he looks very decent) and less of the Chadli-vibe (where my first impression that he was a bit crap were never really challenged, despite a few goals).

Mind you I always thought N'Jie looked handy. I mean - he did. Didn't he?! Thought he was just what we needed at the time - pace and goal threat. And in his few minutes on the pitch he did deliver. Not like GKN who I have literally never seen do anything positive ever.

 

The others were poor footballers, just pure pace, and needed things laid on a plate for them to look useful. Moura is much more talented on the ball so he can make things happen regardless of whether a defender gets caught out of position. Despite coming across a bit shy, he's clearly a confident player on the pitch and that's a big improvement on the other dross wingers we've signed from France recently.

He's still settling in though but I think we've got ourselves another Son and will really start coming into his own next season.

 

Oh yeah - I forgot about the time that he hit a shot against an Apoel defender's shin and it rebounded in for a goal when we were 2-0 up in the 80th minute against a Cypriot team. Okay, well apart from that then...

 

Yes you don't need to see much of him to recognise the fact that he is a quality player. He could be the equivalent of the VDV signing in many ways. Not in the way he plays but in his sheer quality and to a certain extent the shear fluke of Spurs signing such a quality player at a relatively modest fee by the standards of the day. My feeling is, he will become a very important player for us.

 

I genuinely kinda like the way he looks like he's 25 going on 40 too.

And seriously - I have never heard anyone agree with me that N'Jie looked...okay really and someone I was really happy to see more of. I mean - was it just me?! Or is everyone else happy to just go with roughly "Poch reckoned his attitude was dodgy so he was off - no great loss" cos I assume that's the basic story.