Areas for Tottenham's Erik Lamela to Improve on in 2015/16 Season

The tag of Tottenham's record signing has rarely sat well upon a player's shoulders. 

In the last 20 years, Sergei Rebrov, David Bentley, Darren Bent, Paulinho and Roberto Soldado have all wilted under the pressure of being the most expensive player in the club's history. 

Across that period, only Luka Modric and Les Ferdinand have succeeded at the club after being handed that seemingly poisoned epithet.

Erik Lamela is now the holder of that title and seems headed for the former list rather than the latter, far shorter, one. 

Having arrived at the club in the ill-fated summer of 2013, Lamela was the last and probably most high-profile arrival. 

Joining the club after a successful spell with Roma in the Serie A, expectations of his capacity to deliver immediately were high. Ultimately though, those expectations were not well placed. 

Injuries slowed him while the turmoil that engulfed the club and ended the managerial tenure of Andre Villas-Boas could not have helped the then-21-year-old adapt to life and football in a new country. 

His first season was a significant disappointment, but the mitigating factors allowed hopes to build for year two. 

To a certain extent, Lamela delivered. 

He was a qualified success in his second season in England, scoring four goals and giving seven assists. Statistical analysts WhoScored deemed him to have been the best player on the pitch in five of his 40 appearances. 

Chastened by how easily he was bullied by opposition defenders in his first campaign for Spurs, Lamela added some weight to his slender frame and grew in tenacity. Away from his contribution with the ball, Lamela was a devoted exponent of Mauricio Pochettino's pressing game and willing to battle for 50-50 balls. 

By season's end he had secured the starting role on Spurs' right-flank, justifiably considered part of their strongest lineup. 

His improvement was undeniable and, while he had not yet justified the hype, he produced some truly incredible moments. 

The trouble with the Rabona, the Gareth Bale-esque winner against Burnley and most importantly the transfer fee is that the expectations of Lamela have always been unrealistic. 

It is necessary to distinguish between the player and his price tag. 

BEN STANSALL/Getty Images

Having anointed Lamela as Francesco Totti's long-term successor, Roma had little interest in selling Lamela. 

Spurs' Bale bonanza was also headline news across the football world; there was no way they were going to acquire a player like Lamela at a discount. 

The question is not whether Lamela can justify his fee, but whether he can reach his brilliant best. 

Lamela is still only 23, roughly the age that Gareth Bale was in his dominant final season in the Premier League. 

He has time on his side to continue his development and become a star performer for Spurs, but there are areas he must improve upon. 

The first among these is his consistency. 

Capable of excellence but not reliable enough that his team can depend upon him, Lamela must find a consistent level. 

His fitful brilliance is reminiscent of Crystal Palace forward Yannick Bolasie. Bolasie is a match-winner on his day but is incapable of delivering those performances regularly. The Congolese attacker has produced a highlight reel of stunning moments and was the subject of a rumoured bid by Spurs in the summer. 

Bolasie's erratic performances are fine for Palace, but Tottenham demands more. 

Lamela has started three times this season and made three more appearances as a substitute. 

Against Qarabag in the Europa League, he was excellent. He scored and could have had a hat-trick. He was creative, aggressive and strong. 

That followed his match-winning cameo against Sunderland in the Premier League. 

This flurry of good performances is a sharp reversal of his form earlier in the season. 

He replaced Harry Kane when Spurs led 2-0 against Stoke City, and that substitution precipitated an unforgivable collapse to a 2-2 draw. 

In Tottenham's worst performance since the Europa League defeat in Florence last season, Lamela was weak, wasteful in possession and petulant. He almost got himself sent off and Spurs probably would have been better off if he had been. 

Evidently, Lamela has not yet conquered his chronic inconsistency. 

Part of what defines Lamela's play, both its highs and lows, is his desperation to make things happen every time he touches the ball. 

He is seemingly unsatisfied with the simple option, and that is something else that he must improve. 

Lamela must learn that the easiest pass is often the best one; he is trapped in an adolescent attitude to football. He tries to win the game every time he touches the ball. 

He should not eradicate the flair from his game but temper it. 

If he can polish his game in this way, he can make tangible improvements. 

"

Erik Lamela is the most creative player in the Premier League this season, creating 5.22 chances per 90 minutes.

— Spurs Stat Man (@SpursStatMan) September 22, 2015"

Already the most creative player in the Premier League, according to his ratio of chances created to minutes played, Lamela must increase his output of both goals and assists. 

With Harry Kane's goal return inevitably falling this season, Spurs need their other attacking players to pick up the slack. 

Heung-Min Son has made an excellent start in that regard, but it is vital that Lamela at least match him. 

If Lamela is not scoring, he won't be in the team. 

Between Son, Christian Eriksen, Nacer Chadli, Dele Alli and Andros Townsend, there are too many options for Pochettino to persist with his misfiring countryman. 

It is impossible to deny that Lamela has the ability to be a top player. 

Last season he demonstrated his capacity to contribute as one of the better players in the fifth-best team in England. He won his place in the lineup, but he needs to win it every week. 

His athletic capacity, his burgeoning toughness and most of all his skill, mean that Lamela should be a star. 

He does not lack for mental toughness—his early failures in the Premier League would have crushed lesser players. 

Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images

Bentley failed at Spurs because he was not mentally tough enough. 

Bent wasn't talented enough to thrive in a struggling side; the fact that he moved progressively downwards after leaving Tottenham speaks to that fact. 

Rebrov and Soldado were poorly suited to the style of football played in England and at Spurs. 

They all had excuses for not delivering on their promise at White Hart Lane. 

Lamela does not have that luxury.