Lucas

[Exiled_red]

It's good that people laugh at that now - there were plenty advocating such a move last summer.

that 6m figure is indeed a joke. So under rated its criminal.

[Alex]

It sounds like a certain paper has put 2 and 2 together to make 7

[Mostar]

Wasn't he linked to an Italian club (Palermo mebbe) a couple of years ago?

He was last summer and that is what their ****ty fictional story is all based upon

[RedReet]

And Inter briefly.

[magicalbarnes]

This is just the usual gutter press but the £6m makes it even more laughable.

Id say he's worth close to the £15m mark in the current market.

[RichC]

If this tub of lard was bought for £17 M - Lucas is worth at least £20M

[BigChief]

This is just the usual gutter press but the £6m makes it even more laughable.

Id say he's worth close to the £15m mark in the current market.

That's more laughable coming from a fan than the £6million from a no-nothing rag. I wouldn't sell Lucas for anything under £30 million. Take it or leave it. Obviously, I'd do a deal at £27million.

[Craig_H]

Along with Pepe, Suarez and Gerrard, Lucas is one of our 'untouchables', as the saying goes.

[Exiled_red]

Along with Pepe, Suarez and Gerrard, Lucas is one of our 'untouchables', as the saying goes.

[RedReet]

The Scouser Report: Liverpool’s Lucas Leiva Rises From Passenger To Player Of The Year
Posted by Andrew Beasley ⋅ 26 July, 2011


Liverpool FC’s recently crowned player of the season has been on quite an amazing journey over the last four years. From the Kop’s chief boo-boy to the side’s lynchpin is quite a turn-around.

But how has this happened? And why did he take so much stick in the first place?

Not surprisingly, given his bloodlines, the person most responsible for the flack heaped upon Lucas is Phil Neville. Yes, Phil Neville. Just stick with me on this…

In October, 2007, Liverpool made the short trip across Stanley Park for one of their toughest matches of the season, an away Merseyside derby. Eyebrows were raised, to put it mildly, when, in the seventieth minute, Rafa Benitez replaced club captain Steven Gerrard with an unknown Brazilian making his league debut and sporting a mop of curly blonde hair. At 1-1, with Everton down to ten men, it seemed a bizarre substitution but, in hindsight, it proved inspired. Benitez, as always, had a ready explanation during his post-match remarks.

“In this game, sometimes you need to play with the brain and we were playing with heart.”

That probably goes down as Rafa’s harshest critique of Gerrard but, in this instance, it was spot on.

Where Blue Nev, the slightly less reviled brother of Red, comes in is that he subsequently handled a Lucas shot on the line, à la Luis Suarez, momentarily preventing a certain goal. Neville was rightly sent off and Dirk Kuyt slotted home the penalty to secure three points for the Reds. Yet, imagine what might have been had Lucas scored the derby winner in his first appearance for the club? It’s guaranteed that the Kop would have been onside with the youngster from the offset and the Brazilian wouldn’t have endured such severe growing pains during his development at Anfield.

If you don’t believe me, just ask John Arne Riise, who scored his first Reds goal at Goodison Park, leading to the famous chant asking exactly how he had done it. It was not as many people think, having better recollection of his howitzer against Manchester United but now I’m getting off topic.

People tend to overlook the fact that Lucas Leiva came to England at the tender age of twenty, unable to speak the language, yet the vast majority of his critics would shudder at the prospect of having to move to a foreign country and learn a new language, without any lead time to prepare and with their career on the line.

Let’s not forget, either, that he didn’t join a mid-table outfit where there is significantly less pressure. When he signed for the club, Liverpool had just played their second Champions League final in three seasons, and boasted a midfield including Xabi Alonso, about to become a European champion with Spain, and Javier Mascherano, the captain of Argentina, undoubtedly one of the world’s top footballing nations. That’s before you get to Steven Gerrard, the human dynamo who had largely carried the club on his back for the previous five years. What young player wouldn’t look slightly inferior to any of those three?

Signing in the same class as Yossi Benayoun, Ryan Babel, and especially Fernando Torres also didn’t help. It would have taken a miraculous first season to outshine those three, then at the height of their powers. Or a goal of mythic proportion. Unfortunately for Lucas, Phil Neville turned out to be a myth buster.

Another problem was the hype which accompanied his signing. He wasn’t cast in the same light as Neymar, who is linked weekly with a record-breaking transfer to yet another European super power, but it was noted upon his arrival that Lucas had, in 2006, become the youngest person to win the Bola De Ouro (Golden Ball), awarded to the Campeonato Brasileiro Player of the Year.

Being named the best player in Brazil can hardly be taken lightly. The winners immediately prior were Carlos Tevez, Robinho, Alex and Kaka, bums every one. Upon learning of the accolade, fans were understandably expecting some kind of samba superstar, with all the flicks, tricks and silky skills that are part and parcel to such a reputation.

Scott Parker proved at West Ham, last year, that you don’t have to be a show pony or superstar goal getter to win a player of the year award but it can’t be argued that his selection was atypical. It’s easy to understand the perception that Lucas’ CV engendered in unprepared fans.

“He’s the least Brazilian footballer I’ve ever seen!” was a common complaint, as if this was any kind of valid criticism. The same was often said about Dunga, a World Cup winning captain, in case you’ve been living under a rock for the last seventeen years. And what about Lucio? How can the same people who complain that young English players are too one-dimensional, lacking the tactical subtlety of foreign players, reasonably expect only one type of player to come out of Brazil?

Personally, I put more faith in numbers than perceptions. With Lucas, however, the statistics reveal some interesting anomalies.

His tackling success rate in the league has decreased season on season, from seventy-five percent in 2007/08 to sixty-five in the just completed campaign. Likewise, his passing accuracy has decreased over the past three seasons. Admittedly by under one percent but it is still widely agreed that he has played better in more recent seasons, so I would have expected this figure to improve.

Why hasn’t it? Simply put, I think he has adjusted his style to cut down on the silly mistakes which blighted his early days at Anfield. At the same time, however, he has maintained an aggressive posture when in possession, which has placed a glass ceiling on his passing effectiveness.

Contrary to the argument that he seems to only pass the ball backwards, last season, two out of every three passes he attempted in the Premier League went forwards. Not back to the defence, not sideways to a fellow midfielder, but in an attacking direction. It’s logical that he would pass away from pressure when the situation warrants, though, although Lucas haters often choose to ignore that.

Another misconception has been that Lucas is something akin to Jonah, an accursed soul for whom nothing ever goes right, whose bad luck is highly contagious and whose very presence in the team causes it to perform worse. Again, nothing could be further from the truth. Whilst I don’t value a team’s win percentage with or without a certain player, as it is never down to that one person, Liverpool’s record does improve when Lucas has started a league game.

In his one hundred and eleven starts, the Reds have won sixty-one, or fifty-five percent. In his absence, that percentage has dipped below fifty, with the side only coming out on top twenty times in forty-one efforts.

Lucas is by no means the finished article. Six goals and thirteen assists in one hundred an sixty-eight appearances isn’t what people expect from the Brazilian on their roster but, then, it hasn’t been his main requirement in the team, has it? Key goals are likely to come as the twenty-four year old continues to mature and gain confidence. When you think of what he has overcome to reach his current level of Kop worship, he has already achieved more than most players do in a whole career. That he has been motivated to do so suggests that he isn’t satisfied with grudging acceptance and more is to come.

http://worldfootballcolumns.com/2011/07/26/the-scouser-report-lucas-leiva-rises-from-passenger-to-player-of-the-year/

[Glenn Hysen]

If this tub of lard was bought for £17 M - Lucas is worth at least £20M

[Norbs]

http://worldfootballcolumns.com/2011...r-of-the-year/

That author read my post from earlier, using linchpin in his piece

[JHP]

John Aldridge used to annoy me no-end when on radio he would frequently claim that Lucas just wasn't good enough for LFC. I guess this influenced a number of people.

I generally like Aldridge but I'm clear that the young Aldridge I watched at Newport County wasn't that much of a player.

I guess he's paid to be outspoken but I hope in future he's a little more careful.

[Craig_H]

Careful about what? He was expressing an opinion and furthermore, 2-3 years ago, Lucas WAS not good enough. He's improved massively.

[BobTheCharmer]

He's improved and is a good player. He needs to continue to improve and take charge of games, something he rarely does. Also dallies a little too much, but at being in the right place and passing 3-7 yards and maintaining the ball he's ace. The signs look good. But if he was sold I wouldn't be losing too much sleep all the same. Those type of players don't excite me, although I see the value in the modern game. Give me a McMahon or Souness every day of the week.