THE Lucas thread

[Scratch]

Some people will just refuse to give Lucas any credit whatsoever, no matter what he does. It's painfully boring and predictable.

It's Standard Operation Procedure, or SOP for short.

[Delinquent]

Twice the attacking footballer but only half the defensive footballer.

I'm not sure it's that clear cut. Aquilani puts himself about a fair bit. Of course, defending is unlikely to be his job though, nor should it. In the same way that directing the play shouldn't be Lucas'. There is a possibility (as Assassin points out) that he'll play with Lucas a fair bit, so their roles would be very different.

It's got to be one of Lucas OR Masher though (of course I would choose Masher as I believe, at his best, he's vastly superior in that role). Never both.

[Kenneth]

Why didnt everyone else have a good game then?

I don't know. Do you?

[Scratch]

I don't know. Do you?

So what are you basing your argument on then?

[Kenneth]

So what are you basing your argument on then?

That underperforming is not worthy of excessive praise on the basis that others underperformed equally or more.

[Scratch]

No, Lucas was good because he was better than other players on the night. Because he kept the ball, won the ball, hassled the opposition, played as part of a team, didn't try hollywood balls, allowed the game to flow, looked for the man in red, made himself available for passes....simple things to do, but other players just didn't seem interested in doing them.

That underperforming is not worthy of excessive praise on the basis that others underperformed equally or more.

In what way did he underperform then?

[Craig_H]

I don't know. Do you?

Maybe because it's not just a given that they'll play well and therefore Lucas deserves credit for doing so.

[Neil Young]

Lucas was fine last night. Slating him today for his performance is just silly.

[Guest]

Lucas was fine last night. Slating him today for his performance is just silly.

http://www.est1892.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?p=1423348&postcount=1

[Neil Young]

I don't see how that helps. People aren't criticising him for how he played last night on how he played last night.

[Guest]

I don't see how that helps. People aren't criticising him for how he played last night on how he played last night.

I agree it doesn't help. People criticise him on how he's played last week, then last night, then next week.

[RedReet]

He's probably been our most consistent player this year (queue the consistently **** jokes).

Although I wanted to see him play alongside Mascherano again, I’m so glad he didn’t as no doubt they’d have been to blame for such an impotent performance.

[Kenneth]

Lucas was fine last night. Slating him today for his performance is just silly.

Don't think he's been slated by anyone.

[sambirken]

No-one nitice this??
http://www1.uefa.com/fanzone/chat/index.html

They didn't answer my question.

[Neil Young]

Don't think he's been slated by anyone.

What do you call this?

According to Rafa Lucas was FANTASTIC last night???????????????

Here are his stats from last night.

Player statistics - Season 2009/10
ABS Avg/90 min
Appearances 1 -
Mins. Played 90 -
Goals scored - -
Total shots 1 1
Shots wide 1 1
Assists - -
Offsides - -
Fouls committed 3 3
Fouls suffered 4 4
Yellow cards - -
Red cards - -
Last updated: 17/09/2009 03:15 CET

That’s his stats from last night, unfortunately it doesn’t show how many times he lost the ball (which he did for the first time after 5 seconds).

Having said all that I taught they were all shocking with the exception of Benayoun and Kuyt, but why does he single out Lucas for PRAISE?

I suggest anyone criticising Lucas after last night is someone with an axe to grind. I don't mind people still thinking last night's performance isn't enough to change their mind about him but credit where it's due, he was OK (or more than OK) last night and people need to lay off him at least until he plays poorly again.