Lucas

[Assassin]

A lot is being said about Lucas being slow. Is he slow? I think not. Anyways being a speed merchant isnt a pre-requisite to be a top top midfielder

[RichC]

He's not quick and never has been but it's not a key component of his game anyway.

[Phoenix07]

His positioning and awareness on the pitch makes up for his lack of quickness. Klopp likes quick players in the wide areas, but elsewhere, game intelligence can be used to compensate.

[RichC]

Exactly

[Irishnev]

His positioning and awareness on the pitch makes up for his lack of quickness. Klopp likes quick players in the wide areas, but elsewhere, game intelligence can be used to compensate.

Lucas could do the role that Sebastian Kehl did under Klopp at Dortmund. Kehl played well into his 30s and was certainly not a quick player but read the game exceptionally well and was a very intelligent footballer.

[Rigadon]

A lot is being said about Lucas being slow. Is he slow? I think not. Anyways being a speed merchant isnt a pre-requisite to be a top top midfielder

He only appears slow after a (lengthy) injury - and he's had a few recently. He seems to take a while to regain match fitness - but that's natural. Once match-fit... he's a top, top player

[Corndog]

He was very good again against Chelsea. I thought maybe after last season he was on his way out so to speak but clearly he isn't.

So important to the attack as well as his obvious defensive strengths.

Does need to watch the unnecessary fouls though, I know sometimes he has to do it to slow play down. But you can only get away with those fouls so many times and regardless of what you thought on saturday, we have all seen players sent off in similar situations.

looks to have a good partnership with Can

[Myo]

http://www.thisisanfield.com/2015/11...r-this-season/

[frank the tank]

I don't like kicking a bloke when he's down but some of Rodgers decision-making was just plain wrong. Lucas still has a whole lot to give to this club.

to be honest, leaving Markovic go on loan was another example of this as well.

For me Brendan was a very good manager at bringing through young players. I think if Brendan actually originally agreed with FSG to work under a DoF then he might still be at LFC. If you look at BR's tenure as a whole, there is not a lot of consistency in his approach...... his first act was to bomb out Andy Carroll because although he was a good player, he didn't fit in with the way BR wanted to play. In his last transfer window, he bought Benteke and started lumping it up to him.......

[frank the tank]

Getting back to the point of the thread though, Lucas is now possibly more important to the team than Henderson, Milner or Emre Can - simply because they can all be filled in for by other players whereas I don't think Lucas can be as easily. Maybe in time Emre Can will be the controlling midfielder for us but I don't think he has the tactical awareness to have the role week-in week-out right now.

I actually think our centre midfield options are really good though.... if we weren't so screwed with injuries this season then i think we could challenge for the title.

[Darkon]

Getting back to the point of the thread though, Lucas is now possibly more important to the team than Henderson, Milner or Emre Can - simply because they can all be filled in for by other players whereas I don't think Lucas can be as easily. Maybe in time Emre Can will be the controlling midfielder for us but I don't think he has the tactical awareness to have the role week-in week-out right now.

I actually think our centre midfield options are really good though.... if we weren't so screwed with injuries this season then i think we could challenge for the title.

I agree, we need another Lucas type now that we've changed our playing style. I think a lot of the criticism of Lucas stems from us not playing to his strenghts for a number of years now and he's looked surplus during that time or a rotation player. Now we're playing a more consistent pressing game with a more dedicated DM he excels again. He didn't have the requirements for the midfield role asked of Rodgers.

Hopefully he can keep it up and kick on from here and he will be a very valuable asset to the team!

[Havors]

Lucas is an excellent player at what he does when he gets the chance. If the guy could shoot or pick that final pass out he would be amazing. He often finds himself in a good position with the ball but the creativity or goal scoring is just not really in his locker.

[Maxiedge]

Our 'good' run in form last season for about 7 games coincided with Lucas coming back into the team and, once he was out injured,....well the rest is history

[Fosterbloke]

If he can stay fit then I'd wager a vice captaincy or even captaincy is on the cards next season.

[RedReet]

Lucas is an excellent player at what he does when he gets the chance. If the guy could shoot or pick that final pass out he would be amazing. He often finds himself in a good position with the ball but the creativity or goal scoring is just not really in his locker.

He definitely looks more likely to score a few this year, has been close a few times recently. His chances created stats are also quite high for DM, so again he is capable.

Just needs to stay fit. That's the only thing that will hold him back IMO.