I admire the loyalty to Bournemouth, but he could be a valuable CM for just about any other top flight team.
isnt loyalty...........he didnt recieve offers with the amount that bournemouth was asking. Actually i think they overpaid levante for him......
Years ago in this thread I said this guy is like a poor man's Pogba. Well these last couple games he has played better than Pogba. Happy for him and hope he continues to improve his game and gains more confidence. His shots from outside the box are giving opposing teams something else to watch out for on film and keeps the Defense honest. Also his running up and anticipating the cross for the header was simply out of nowhere. (For a Colombian DFM that is.) In England we have seen him do it but glad he did it for us.
He understands much better the game than pogba....maybe not the talent....but to play in a team Pogba footall iq is the sae as guarin...
Surprised a premier team didn't make a move for him All the relegated teams have been selling off their players
If Lerma has a strong 2-game set next month, I can imagine top flight teams vying for him in the winter transfer window. The upside from playing in the championship division is his offensive stats - 2 goals and 1 assist in 4 games. Perhaps that has given him the confidence to be so aggressive these past two games.
Per Wikipedia - unless CRZD edited this “On 7 August 2018, Lerma joined Premier League club AFC Bournemouth for a club record transfer fee of €30 million.”
haha when I was in highschool I think I created all our players wiki pages when they got their first caps haven’t been on that site I. Years
He is playing the way I imagined he could play for us. I hope he gets more consistent and gains more confidence. He provides us with something at CM that really cannot be duplicated by anyone else in the current moment.
Idk if he should get Uribe"s spot permanently Usually in a 433, you have a DM (Barrios), a box to box (Cuadrado) and a player skilled on the ball for passes CM (Uribe) I am not sure 2 true box to box players is the way to go.
Yeah a guy like Alzate is probably a better fit, we are going to get into trouble if we don't have guys who can control the tempo of a game and can find guys like James in space. Lerma had a good game, but Alzate/Barrios/Cuadrado is probably a better balance on style.
It is difficult to bench our best player over the first two games of qualifying though. Good problem to have. Depth is never a bad thing.
I’m battling that debate too. To me I found Lerma’s play and tenacity inspiring The way Lerma played these past two games is what I wanted to see out of Guarin during the 10/14 cycles - he did it for Porto...
We're all forgetting Yairo, too. Personally, I've always found Uribe to be frustratingly inconsistent. Even though I didn't think Lerma played a single decent math in midfield for Colombia before last week, he at least always plays hard. Uribe goes absent for entire halves...
Well if we are thinking long term I’d say give Barrios, Lerma and Alzate a shot. Cuadrado will start to regress at his age pretty soon
yeah i like Lerma, Uribe is too inconsistent for me, I don't trust him. Also haven't seen enough of this "Yairo" guy either. Although I lowkey don't like him already because of his terrible name
Yairo hasn't been a rockstar in every match either. I think Lerma matches up well against the teams that have a lot of physicality and speed. I can tell he's been working on his accuracy at shots on goal. Last season he was hoofing every ball well past the target. But to be fair, Uribe has also had some great moments and has some great football IQ. He's also playing for Porto which is not just any European team. Before the 2 qualifiers, had you told me having Lerma play alongside Barrios would start to pay dividends I would've thought you mad. But they're both understanding their role and space fairly well while providing somewhat of a safety net when we lose possession. Last thing I'll say, is that with these long qualifiers, adding a pandemic on top of it, the deeper teams will come out well. If Chile for example loses Vidal in that MF, no way he's replaceable. We got a solid performance from James but far from his best and the team was still able to show balance. Lots to work on but I have no complaints as a 'fan' of the sport I was so happy to see our boys back in play for points.