Liverpool FC Forum

[Festy]

Wooooohooooo......Lucas Leiva is leaving. I'm throwing a party on 'Lucas Departure Day'. You all are invited.

[DrPepe]

Read that £6m rumour. Not sure we should be selling players who've made 22 league apps this season. He may not be pivotal, but when we are missing players through injury or suspension then we need someone to come in and if Lucas is happy playing 22 times without complaining about wanting more starts then we should look to hang onto him.

If clubs in Italy and Spain are interested, let them offer £10m. Are we going to find many better players who will happily sit on the bench and cost £6m? (and will they be younger) I think Plessis will be shipped out in the summer, he made two Premiership starts last season, one this and none since. If we can get maybe £2m-£3m for him then at least we'd be getting some money for someone who rarely features rather than a player becoming an important squad player

yeh i agree


if we need 3 'CM's  in our current formations then it's not unreasonable to have 5 decent CMs on our books e.g. masch, shabby, garrybarry, Our Great Leader & Lucas 


to be honest  I'm not a big fan of knocking our players e.g. celebrating rumours that they're leaving

He ain't world class, but from what i've seen of him, you can never accuse him of not giving 100%

[sworth26]

It was the 'Fans Favorite' comment that amused me to be honest! 

[Owzat]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/8034274.stm

Competition improves me - Lucas 

Lucas feels he is benefiting from playing with Alonso and Mascherano

Liverpool's Lucas Leiva believes competition for places in the Reds midfield has made him a better player.

The 22-year-old Brazil international midfielder has played a supporting role to Javier Mascherano and Xabi Alonso at Anfield this season.

He told BBC Radio Merseyside: "It's good because when you are fighting with players like Alonso and Javier. You try to improve every day.

"You know if you don't improve it will be impossible to play."

Lucas, who has scored three goals in 36 appearances for Liverpool this season, has not always been met with universal approval from Liverpool fans.

The former Brazil Under-20 captain believes it is too early to compare him to his more experienced midfield team-mates at Anfield.

"I am learning, but Steven Gerrard is 29, Alonso is almost 28, Javier is almost 25 and I'm 22 so I'm young and I have to enjoy this time and to learn with them.

"Hopefully in one or two years I will be a key player also," said Lucas.

Lucas believes he is beginning to show the faith that manager Rafa Benitez placed in him on signing from Gremio in 2007.

"When I don't start I play some minutes, that shows how confident Rafa is in my quality.

"I know not everybody trusts in me but I don't care. I have said before I just care about the team, (and) the staff.

"If they are happy in me I will show, as soon as possible, my real quality."

"When I don't start I play some minutes, that shows how confident Rafa is in my quality." - interesting interpretation of not starting, I would have thought not starting would show a lack of confidence in his quality not t'other way around. N'Gog comes on for a few minutes here and there, so does Babel, but if they weren't on the bench then who would be? Rafa's hardly going to bring the keeper on, or disrupt a CB pairing unnecessarily. Perm any three from five and that's Rafa's confidence in whoever comes on's quality.

[Festy]

Well I've decided to stop slating Lucas from now on. Simply because Rafa sees something in him that I can't see. I'll reserve my judgment on him for at least an year before praising/slating him again. In the meantime I sincerely hope that he improves his quality and learn from Xavi, Masch and captain.

All the best Lucas fella. 

[Owzat]

He talks about competition, but does he realise that he is third in line (fourth if you count Gerrard) and so his chances of progressing may be limited. Just under half his 23 Premiership apps this season have been starts, about the same number as Sami who is leaving at the end of the season. He'll have to improve dramatically to be forcing his way into the side, he's a decent player but not that close to starting XI material for us.

[bunglemark2]

Good point from Festy it has to be said....however, Rafa has had a fair few lemons in his time in Anfield, not that I need to list them here. Maybe he will be proved right, but he must be seeing something we can't or don't. The other thing to add to that, is no matter how he performs in training, it's when he's on the pitch that counts, irrespective of whether he gets 5, 15 or 75 minutes to show his ability. And up to now, I just haven't seen it....
Who knows, now that he has shorn the mullet he might improve

[RedBlood]

lucas is a good player id be gutted if we sold him, he came on against newcastle and he played some very nice long and short pases on a couple of occasions his control and composer was very impressive under pressure and he scored a good goal
hes 22 and although he had a bad patch i believe hes shown great character to coming back from his own fans booing him to put in some impressive displays

like kuyt people almost want him to play badly just so they can say i told you so and slag him off and they get blinded into believing hes played even when he hasnt

[andy_g]

i'm pretty sure we'll see lucas shipped out in the summer. from what i'm reading in the press - which is no stamp of certainty of course - is that benitez will try to sign barry and wants to keep mascherano and alonso. he knows he has to sell to buy so i'm pretty sure a central mid will have to give way, and i'm pretty sure that it will be lucas.

its a shame as i still think he has potential and i kind of like the lad, but obviously having barry instead gives us a much stronger option.

[Owzat]

I think it would be foolish to sell off a player who has proved an important member of the squad and isn't yet 23. He hasn't just played 5-6 games this season, he's played over 20 in the Premiership alone. Unless a club throws £10m+ at us for him, I think we'd be best advised retaining him for the time being. But he's just one of those players some on here will never like and never be happy until he's gone, always looking at "better players" and knocking Lucas for one reason or another, yet ignoring the fact Lucas is only 22 compared to Barry (28), Benayoun (29), Gerrard (29 at the end of May), Alonso (27), and Mascherano (25 in June) We do need some younger players to develop and pad out the squad, and cover for injuries, we may not be overloaded with 30+ year olds but if we want to do what Man Utd have done then we need a conveyor of players and not just a one-off solution with ageing players at their peak or heading past it.

That's why fergie doesn't go out and buy half a dozen 1st team squad members a season, he adds players for the future. Rafa buys a lot of young players, but too many are way off 1st team standard. fergie buys them and how many are in or around the 1st team squad within a couple of years? Considering they pretty much set the standard it says a lot that they can be favourites for the Premiership, be in the CL final and still play the likes of Rafael, Evans, Macheda, Nani etc. Maybe Lucas isn't quite that quality, but he still gets plenty of games for us and it doesn't make us a bad side when he plays. If we offload the likes of Lucas then that's sacrificing our equivalent player(s), maybe the same can be said for Babel although he hasn't had a great season. We have a big squad (62 players?), but selling off (young) players who've played frequently for the 1st team might be a bad move.

[SuuPeRrSteviieG!!]

At a time when many are questioning Alonso's worth to the team I find myself thinking "Well, just how special is Lucas ? "

This is not meant as having a dig at Lucas but let's face it for a Brazilian midfielder the fella has yet to produce a flash of magic you would normally expect from a player with his pedigree and heritage and despite Alonso's below par season I fail to see why some think it wouldn't be a major loss if Alonso should go and so little is said about Lucas' less than newsworthy performances given that after Gerrard and Mascherano the third place midfield spot falls to either Alonso or Lucas.

Lucas is neat , he's tidy , erm ....... I'm hard pressed to say anything else apart from he's also very lightweight , gets brushed off the ball and decked by any opposing player that puts in a serious challenge and the majority of his own tackles seem to result in a free kick for the opposition. Offers little in terms of goal threat or creativity.


As far as I'm concerned Lucas' performances for us have so far been distinctly average, don't see that the lad has any real future with us, apart from being a handy fill in when Mascher is unavailable, or am I missing something ?

Since hes been playing in theGerrard role, we havent lost a game this season. shorly thats what Rafa must see in him? an attacking midfielder who can also step in defensifly. this must be the good side of Lucas who in my opinion has took a lot of stick and has Improved by a far stretch since being knocked out of the F.A cup by everton. Hate to hear/see him be critisised by all these 'So called' 'TRUE SUPPORTERS' i am sure that if ANY of the people that stepped out infront of 45,000 people would not play PERFECT for 90 minutes and are still young and inexperienced like Lucas is. My pint being give the lad a chance i gurantee he will reveal his true ability in time.

[supersub]

Since hes been playing in theGerrard role, we havent lost a game this season. shorly thats what Rafa must see in him? an attacking midfielder who can also step in defensifly. this must be the good side of Lucas who in my opinion has took a lot of stick and has Improved by a far stretch since being knocked out of the F.A cup by everton. Hate to hear/see him be critisised by all these 'So called' 'TRUE SUPPORTERS' i am sure that if ANY of the people that stepped out infront of 45,000 people would not play PERFECT for 90 minutes and are still young and inexperienced like Lucas is. My pint being give the lad a chance i gurantee he will reveal his true ability in time.

Hardly lost a game all season, so I don't think it's down to Lucas.

In time all will be revealed, I'm sure

[GYBS]

A lot of people seem to judge Lucas on the fact he is brazilian and thats a bit unfair - he will never be the flair type player that we expect from Brazilian players but he is more the dunga or gilberto type that come along once in a blue moon for brazil .

[Fowler_E7]

A lot of people seem to judge Lucas on the fact he is brazilian and thats a bit unfair - he will never be the flair type player that we expect from Brazilian players but he is more the dunga or gilberto type that come along once in a blue moon for brazil .

except the fact that Dunga and Gilberto were much better players 

[GYBS]

yes but who had heard of them when they were 22 ?? no one - it wasnt until they were in there late 20s early 30s they flourishged