Lucas

[Maxiedge]

Yep, and we scraped past Burnley, AFC Wimbledon and drew with Leicester with Lucas etc. That whole run was more solid than expansive brilliance with and without Lucas. He's ****ing boss but not sure he deserves credit for games where he was in a suit in the stands!! And the run most definitely did not end as soon as he got injured.

My point is, the team I saw playing, functioned better with Lucas in the middle.

In fact, I didn't feel it functioned at all, without him on the pitch even though we might have mustered some results.

That's not really belittling or begrudging other players but sometimes you need a certain type of player in order to get the team rolling. Without him, our midfield was lost.

[Chris]

Well, you could see the wheels were coming off. I actually think we scraped past some of those teams with the momentum ee had gained and it finally cam to a halt against a ****e Man U side. Let's not forget in the midst of all that, we went out to Besiktas in the Europa.

I'm quite adamant that Lucas midfield intelligence made all the difference.

Yep, and we scraped past Burnley, AFC Wimbledon and drew with Leicester with Lucas etc. That whole run was more solid than expansive brilliance with and without Lucas. He's ****ing boss but not sure he deserves credit for games where he was in a suit in the stands!! And the run most definitely did not end as soon as he got injured.

[Maxiedge]

Beat Spurs, beat Palace, beat Southampton, beat City, beat Burnley, beat Swansea, lost to Man Utd. Not exactly that bad!

It's become such a myth on here that that run was mostly him, he didnt even play in half of it!! Him coming back in at the start of it definitely did help though.

Well, you could see the wheels were coming off. I actually think we scraped past some of those teams with the momentum we had gained and it finally came to a halt against a ****e Man U side. Let's not forget in the midst of all that, we went out to Besiktas in the Europa.

I'm quite adamant that Lucas' midfield intelligence made all the difference.

[Maxiedge]

Wasn't Sakho also back then? He played in that back three IIRC.

yep it was the back three with Markovic RB too. Even he I thought did okayyy all things considered but got treated like absolute dirt after his unfortunate sending off in Europa.

Sakho did well , don't get me wrong, but it was all about Lucas IIRC

[Chris]

once he was out injured

Beat Spurs, beat Palace, beat Southampton, beat City, beat Burnley, beat Swansea, lost to Man Utd. Not exactly that bad!

It's become such a myth on here that that run was mostly him, he didnt even play in half of it!! Him coming back in at the start of it definitely did help though.

[Myo]

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

You could also draw comparisons/similarities with i think back to '11 (totally bossed the chelsea midfield also then and had made a mockery of torres) when he had that bad injury, we were doing well form wise, then the wheels fell off... can't understand how he was so under estimated by fans back then and still to some now... proper DM

[The_weatherman]

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

Wasn't Sakho also back then? He played in that back three IIRC.

[frank the tank]

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

it was when Stevie got injured, Lucas came into the team and we looked waay waay better..... for me, Gerrard should have been used as a forward last year. We couldn't score in a brothel and there he was in his "quarterback" role!!!

[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.

[Fosterbloke]

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

[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

[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.

[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!

[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.

[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.......