by Redman in wales » Mon Mar 29, 2010 3:38 pm
Well he's everyones favourite scapegoat (along with Kuyt) - But the fact is he's done an okay job in some games and a good job in others. However all too rarely has he done an excellent job.
Again like the Aquilani stat of 6 league starts : 6 wins, the reverse is spookily true with lucas:
There are only 4 league games that Lucas has not started this season:
A 2-1 win vs West Ham
A 2-0 win vs Bolton
A 4-1 win vs Portsmouth
A 3-0 win vs Sunderland.
Whenever Lucas starts on the bench – we win!
True, in Aquilani’s starts, and Lucas’s non-starts, you could argue about the quality of the opposition….. but you can only beat who you’re put up against whether you’re in the starting 11 or not.
Until Aquilani is tested in the league against better quality opposition, we wont be able to judge him, same for this silly stat… until Rafa drops Lucas in one of our “tougher” games, we wont know whether there is any substance at all in this -
But I do find the coincidence quite funny : Aquilani starts in the league: 100% win record - Lucas not in the starting 11 : 100% win record
Ultimately the fault lies with Rafa, not with Lucas. Rafa picks Lucas alongside mash when he shouldn’t. We all know it doesn’t work, but Rafa still does it, so we can’t really blame Lucas, but I would like to see lucas dropped more in favour of a Mash-gerrard or mash-aquilani partnership in the centre