Lucas

[-V-]

Lucas is the boss. The stats prove it, he dominated the midfield yesterday


Lucas Leiva
39 passes
38 succesfull
1 assist
97% pass completion
6 tackles attempted, 3 tackles won
2 interceptions
5 fouls conceded


Mascherano
31 passes
29 succesful
93% pass completion
7 tackles attempted, 5 tackles won
3 interceptions
2 fouls conceded
4 fouls won

[RedReet]

Impressive.

Reluctantly chatting to a man in work about the match. His take was that Benni wasted posession too often and Lucas gave the ball away too much in midfield.

[Shaggy]

Impressive.

Reluctantly chatting to a man in work about the match. His take was that Benni wasted posession too often and Lucas gave the ball away too much in midfield.

It's absolutely amazing the things people think they see in a game. People make their minds up about players and that's it, irrespective of performance. There are far too many pretend football fans out there that in reality don't have a clue about the game. I work with a couple....'Reds' too. They ask me every Friday "who've we got this weekend?"

[red g]

Lucas is the boss. The stats prove it, he dominated the midfield yesterday


Lucas Leiva
39 passes
38 succesfull
1 assist
97% pass completion
6 tackles attempted, 3 tackles won
2 interceptions
5 fouls conceded


Mascherano
31 passes
29 succesful
93% pass completion
7 tackles attempted, 5 tackles won
3 interceptions
2 fouls conceded
4 fouls won

Impressive.

Reluctantly chatting to a man in work about the match. His take was that Benni wasted posession too often and Lucas gave the ball away too much in midfield.

what amazes me is the tackles attempted from both. a tackle every 13 minutes? doesnt sound that good!!

[-V-]

They didn't need to tackle as the Mancs didn't threaten us. Lucas and Mascher just stood their ground and the mancs had no way through

[Flight]

Lucas is the boss. The stats prove it, he dominated the midfield yesterday


Lucas Leiva
39 passes
38 succesfull
1 assist
97% pass completion
6 tackles attempted, 3 tackles won
2 interceptions
5 fouls conceded


Mascherano
31 passes
29 succesful
93% pass completion
7 tackles attempted, 5 tackles won
3 interceptions
2 fouls conceded
4 fouls won

Here are his passes from yesterday and from the game at the Mancs gaff last term, 38/39 yesterday and 35/39 last term. Finally puts to bed the bull**** line that he can't pass :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/chalkboards/eaiip63UnI8Ob743X6D4

[red g]

Here are his passes from yesterday and from the game at the Mancs gaff last term, 38/39 yesterday and 35/39 last term. Finally puts to bed the bull**** line that he can't pass :


http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/c...3UnI8Ob743X6D4

dont think anybody has ever said he cant pass......its just the direction of pass that concerns me although he made some good forward passes yesterday which was fantastic to see.

[barnes10]

simply, there's far too much negative sh1te written about Lucas.

He's a quality player and will grow into a brillaint centre midfielder. I hope he shoves the cr@p peddled by his critics down their throats. and i hope he does it in our red shirt in tandem with a brilliant aquillani next season once masher leaves for barca.

[RedReet]

It's absolutely amazing the things people think they see in a game. People make their minds up about players and that's it, irrespective of performance. There are far too many pretend football fans out there that in reality don't have a clue about the game. I work with a couple....'Reds' too. They ask me every Friday "who've we got this weekend?"

That was the worse thing for me during that run of defeats. I didn't mind the abuse from other supporters, it can only be expected, but having to listen to some of the crap from these type of Liverpool supporters really wound me up. If they don't have that great an interest or understanding of football, that's fair enough. But why read something in a paper, listen to something on tv, then use it to argue blindly about something you clearly know nothing about?

Ha ha, that weekend thing reminds me of a fella who worked in our room. He came in one morning after a defeat cursing and moaning, ''what a shower of ****, what a ****ing terrible performance, that lot are useless etc. After settling in his seat he calmly asks 'Did anybody actually watch the game last night, I had to go to my Mums'

[The_weatherman]

Here are his passes from yesterday and from the game at the Mancs gaff last term, 38/39 yesterday and 35/39 last term. Finally puts to bed the bull**** line that he can't pass :


http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/c...3UnI8Ob743X6D4

I think these chalkboards stats are not even close to be accurate tbh, if you look at who he has been passing to it seems he was passing even handed to Man U players as well.

[Shaggy]

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/r...ingless-words/


Liverpool's Lucas knows his actions speak louder than Alan Green's words

By Rory Smith Football Last updated: October 26th, 2009

3 Comments Comment on this article

I doubt Liverpool’s Brazilian midfielder Lucas was listening to Radio 5 Live last Monday. And if not, then he would have missed a most illuminating chat between one of the station’s generally excellent presenters and Dominic Matteo, almost certainly the finest defender of the last 10 years whose name Leeds fans can rhyme with stereo.

“What, Dominic, do you think Rafael Benitez is doing wrong?”

“Well, for me,” came the reply. “He’s not picking the right players, or putting them in their strongest positions.”

“Well,” his interrogator replied, not unfairly, “what changes do you think he should make?”

“That’s not up to me. I’m not the manager.”

Happy to say where people are going wrong, but not willing to actually have any ideas of your own? This way to the microphone.

Alan Green, of course, that doyen of sports broadcasting, can top that. In the build-up to Liverpool’s match with Manchester United, that season-defining moment which forced everyone in the media, your correspondent included, to remember that seasons are never defined in October, regardless of how much Sky pretend they are, Green gave a run-down of the Liverpool line-up.

“Reina, excellent. Johnson, overpriced. Carragher, over the hill. Agger, just returning from injury. Insua, young. Mascherano, wife unhappy on Merseyside. Lucas, two left feet. Kuyt, bought as a striker, but doesn’t score goals. Torres, wonderful.” What the Northern Irishman and Ferguson-baiter in chief said of Fabio Aurelio and Yossi Benayoun is lost in the mists of time, but it would have been along the theme of average at best for the former, and unpredictable for the latter. Suffice to say it was not his assessment of either which stood out.

Similarly, he was spot on in his descriptions of Pepe Reina, the best goalkeeper in England and among the top five in the world, and Fernando Torres, the finest exponent of attacking play on the planet. But then you do not need to be a highly-paid broadcaster to spot that.

Rather, his withering remarks on the rest of Liverpool’s team, which, rather annoyingly, beat the much-vaunted champions about two hours after Green’s unsolicited verdict, were so unfounded, so wilfully hyperbolic, that they remain lodged in the mind 24 hours later.

Glen Johnson was overpriced, of course, but is that a fair summation of his abilities? No. He is an English international right back. Daniel Alves cost £23 million, Philipp Lahm would go for more than that. Johnson is not in their class, but he is the closest this country can manage. He is a £12 million player, but the extra £6 million can be considered a tax on his nationality, in the same way Stewart Downing is not a £12 million player, nor Michael Carrick an £18 million one.

Carragher’s standards have slipped, but, as he proved on Sunday, he is still a fine defender on his day. Daniel Agger is the best ball-playing centre back in the country, despite his injury problems. Emiliano Insua is young, but he is also brimming with promise. He will, most likely, be Argentina’s first choice left-back for many years to come. He has the potential to be better than Johnson, though his lack of stature may hold him back.

Mascherano’s wife, reportedly, has been unsettled in Liverpool, and it seems to have affected his performances, as have Argentina’s recent struggles, though he has been improving in recent weeks. He is also one of the best defensive midfielders in the world.

Kuyt was not bought solely as a striker, he was bought as an industrious, disciplined forward, who had spent much of his career wide, a position he continues to occupy for Holland. He also has a habit of scoring important goals, particularly in Europe.

But Lucas, two left feet? It would seem Mr Green has not watched Liverpool much this season. For all the criticism directed at the young Brazilian, he has been one of Liverpool’s more consistent performers in the last three months. Consistently bad, harrumph the more quick-witted on the band-wagon. It is an over simplistic assessment offered by those who prefer consensus to evidence.

Lucas’s range of passing is minimal, his accuracy poor, his decision-making unreliable. He is neither combative enough to play defensively, nor creative enough to play a more attacking role. So run the accusations.

Yet his main crime, put simply, is that he is not Xabi Alonso. He does not have the Basque’s guile, his vision, his control of time and space. Few players do. Only Xavi and Andrea Pirlo can match Alonso’s range of passing. Contrasting Lucas with his predecessor not only masks the fact that Lucas remains Liverpool’s third-choice central midfielder – behind Mascherano and Alberto Aquilani – but the qualities that made him a Brazilian international at the age of 20.

His energy, his tactical versatility, his economy of possession, the speed with which he moves the ball. Lucas should develop into a fine box-to-box player, rather than a master of the centre circle, as Alonso was. He has his flaws, of course – he does not score enough goals, he is prone to playing safe rather than challenging himself, he commits far too many unnecessary fouls – but casting him as a modern-day Ali Dia is absurd.

If he were, as competitive a manager as Rafael Benitez would not persist with him. Nor would Carlos Dunga. And he would not have gone toe-to-toe with Paul Scholes and Carrick and won. Perhaps his role in the destruction of United will put an end to the ill-considered, rambling sound bites of Green – and many others – in the media. Perhaps it will end the rumbling of discontent among those Liverpool fans who believe Jay Spearing – who did not stand out against League One Leeds, let alone Premier League Sunderland, and has not played for England’s under-21s, much less Brazil’s senior team – is the better player.

Then again, perhaps not. That’s the thing about band wagons. It’s hard to get off them

[Reece]

Good read that. Green is a Liverpool fan is he not?

[Shaggy]

Yep, I've seen him there before as a fan, sitting in the Centenary. Unbelievable that a fan who is also paid to air his views can think like this. ****ing ridiculous.

[dww]

Good read that. Green is a Liverpool fan is he not?

Yep, I've seen him there before as a fan, sitting in the Centenary. Unbelievable that a fan who is also paid to air his views can think like this. ****ing ridiculous.

I can't decide if he totally over compensates mistaking it for neutrality or if he is just a rashid style gob****e. Whichever he is a poor journalist and commentator whose main saving grace is his rapport with Graham Taylor.

[Joe King]

I loathe Alan Green.

We know