Liverpool midfielder Lucas Leiva was suspended for the Norwich game, which meant the team underwent a slight reshuffle. Did the Brazilian's absence affect the performance of the team in any way?
The team put out by Kenny Dalglish against Norwich was probably Liverpool's most attacking line-up of the season, and this showed with 25 shots on goal, 15 of which were on target.
On another day, Liverpool would've come away with a 5-1 victory but it just didn't happen due to consistently inaccurate finishing, something that Lucas wouldn't have had anything to do with.
What do you think?
I personally don't think Lucas was missed. If he had played, the chances are that Bellamy would've been on the bench, and Liverpool may have gone with a slightly more defensive approach.
Liverpool basically had 6 attacking outfield players on the pitch, and the impact of this showed in the huge number of chances created. Lucas is defensively-minded, which automatically means he plays a little more cautiously.
Having said that, Gerrard may have played a little higher up the field with Lucas on the pitch, but on the day, the team didn't really suffer creatively as a result of Gerrard playing deeper.
In any event, I don't think there's any real need to play a dedicated holding midfielder against the smaller teams at Anfield; all out attack should be the approach, just like against Norwich.
Jaimie Kanwar
The team put out by Kenny Dalglish against Norwich was probably Liverpool's most attacking line-up of the season, and this showed with 25 shots on goal, 15 of which were on target.
On another day, Liverpool would've come away with a 5-1 victory but it just didn't happen due to consistently inaccurate finishing, something that Lucas wouldn't have had anything to do with.
What do you think?
I personally don't think Lucas was missed. If he had played, the chances are that Bellamy would've been on the bench, and Liverpool may have gone with a slightly more defensive approach.
Liverpool basically had 6 attacking outfield players on the pitch, and the impact of this showed in the huge number of chances created. Lucas is defensively-minded, which automatically means he plays a little more cautiously.
Having said that, Gerrard may have played a little higher up the field with Lucas on the pitch, but on the day, the team didn't really suffer creatively as a result of Gerrard playing deeper.
In any event, I don't think there's any real need to play a dedicated holding midfielder against the smaller teams at Anfield; all out attack should be the approach, just like against Norwich.
Jaimie Kanwar
Personally i think we missed Lucas, the gap between the midfield and defense was too big and at one point Carragher was shouting at Gerrard and Adam to close down the norwich players.
ReplyDeleteWe sent out an attacking team which created many opportunities.
ReplyDeleteWe conceded 1 goal, this was down to miss communication between Johnson, Carra and Reina.
We have been conceding goals with Lucas in the team and we have lost matches with Lucas in the team.
So no, we did not miss Lucas.
Had we taken all our chances yesterday then how many people would have actually had the thought in their head that we missed Lucas?
We missed chances it's as simple as that, had we put them away this question would be redundant!!!!..........Lucas is quality but we the strikers cost us the 2 pts!!!
ReplyDeletewe did not miss lucas, that was clear (good player though)
ReplyDeletewe missed a striker we paid 35 million pound for, simple as that.
were relying on suarez like we did torres, and looked wat happened.
love kenny and everything he stands for but hes getting it wrong at the moment.
players are judged, like carroll is, so why not the manager?
does he actually know his best 11? does anyone?
did we buy the wrong players or should we be getting more from them.
potential is there for sure, i think. but this season is looking a lot like most we have seen. id like to see us do wat ever we can to sign adam johnson in january, players like that we need
What we really missed was a brain at the back. Why When Norwich decided to play with two enormous Centre forwards did we decide to defend deep and play right into there hands. If the opposition is slow up front surely we should defend high up the pitch to reduce their threat. Isn't this what Carra is in the side for to organise the team? If Carra is our "organiser" and "talker" at the back then I'm laying some of the blame on his doorstep.
ReplyDeleteOf course it didn't make any difference! Lucas never scores and virtually never makes a goal either. And whoever said on another day it would have been 5 - 1 is living in cloud cuckoo land. Liverpool score five goals! That'll be the day. I will be amazed if Liverpool score four goals in any match this season. What a bunch of mediocrities. A 1 - 1 draw was always a likely result, as is a 1 - 0 win for Stoke on Wednesday.
ReplyDeletePersonally i think we mis lucas.
ReplyDeleteWe play better if we revert back to 4-2-3-1..with lucas-adam pairing at the center, Stevie behind striker..
yes we did miss lucas,every time i have seen him charlie adam seemsto tire badly in the second half of games
ReplyDeletePersonally I did NOT miss lucas at all. This is the formation I always wanted liverpool to play since the beginning of the season. bellamy and downing on the wings and a central pairing of adam and gerrard. Thats the most attacking midfield we ever fielded since the beginning of this season and this should be the obvious selection in our future matches not just against smaller teams. Another attacking minded midfield would be to include maxi and downing on the wings and have bellamy pair up with suarez upfront instead of the useless kuyt! Goals are bound to flow.Yesterday was just bad luck. We do not need a holding midfielder like lucas. He brings nothing in attack, has nothing special, no flair or creativity, his range of passing is not as good as gerrard or adam, he can`t cross, is not particularly fast, don`t know how to dribble, his shooting accuracy in front of the goal is poor the only thing he can do is tackle. Do we win games by tackling the most during a match, huh? or do we win games by creating the most chances and of course scoring, huh? Having lucas (henderson also) in the team would reduce our potential firepower (provided by gerrard adam downing maxi and bellamy) thus reducing our chances created per match and the probability of scoring. We are bound to fail with him. Also Lucas is not even a good tackler of the ball as many people seem to believe. Tackling the most does not make you the best. He missed the most tackles last season if you checked his stats correctly. If you guys calculate his tackling accuracy by doing a % of the total tackles won out of the total tackles he made in all , then you would all realise that his tackling accuracy is poor compared to the other players in the league. He may well be among the lowest accurate tacklers in the whole league. Jaimie you seem to like stats, if possible try doing a statistical analysis of the tackling ACCURACY of players during last season. This would lighten up people about the real contribution of lucas in the team. Not just who won the most tackles. We all know lucas did...
ReplyDeleteGod I was waiting for lucas to miss a game, so we can all see how much we don't need him. We should have won against Norwich by great margins and then it would have been obvious we dont need this 2nd rate,working mens club sub standard shite....God its so annoying watching him in a red jersey. Why is the worst players never get injured, he's basically a smaller verison of Biscan, no sorry at least Biscan who was one of the worst players ever to put on the jersy, at least he had a physical pressence, so you could not push him off the ball like Lucas!! What makes me laugh is some liverpools fans think, last season lucas was our best player considering its was liverpool's worst season in years he should be classed as a legend....HAHAHAHA.
ReplyDeleteUtd game he runs into ashley young and makes a fool of himself, gets booked too often, has no pace or footballing brain full stop. Who ever bought this clown to the club should be shot at once. This is the reason why Liverpool have not won the league in over 20 years as until we stop buying average or below average players we will never be consistent enough in the league to be champions..mark my word.
We have paid too much money for average players like Downing 20m (should have been 10-11m at the most), 35m for Carroll (panick buy), 16m for Henderson (has potential but too much money) and not bought enough players of the quality, flair and mental attributes of Suarez's type in other positions.
I hope this does not end up being Daglish's downfall..
I wouldn't be so sure about beating Stoke; they've already beaten us once so the fear factor for them has already gone. Plus, it's a cup game; - they'll be massively up for it as it's the one serious chance they ever have for silverware.
ReplyDeleteLucas is below average ful stop. He's gone from Absolutly Awful to Shit to below average. He's not good enough for LFC.
ReplyDeleteLucas has been involved with plenty of goals if not with the assists or scoring but with winning the ball and getting us moving forward Everton and Arsenal games to think of 2 when we were struggling to finish,you say he was n't missed on saturday he was second half someone just to bring some composer to the passing which might have spread to the players in front of goal most of our chances were missed because of players rushing their shots,Man City play Barry,De Jong or Yaya Toure, Man United play Carrick,Fletcher or Anderson,Spurs Parker and Huddlestone and Barcelona have Mascherano,Busquets and Keita lets not under estimate the importance of a defensive or holding midfield player in the team.
ReplyDeleteOld broom can sweep well.What I will say is our new players like Downing and Hendersen are under-performing.Adams is on the decline too.I think we should start using our old squad when KK came in in Jan.i.e we should start fielding Spearing,Flano,Max and see how things will work out..Remember Bellamy here is an old player.At least our old squad made us proud late last season.
ReplyDeleteKing Kenny should have a thought about this.
Did n't we score 5 last season twice with Lucas in the team Birmingham and Fulham?
ReplyDeleteWe didn't miss Lucas
ReplyDeleteWe should have won by 5 or 6
We would have performed similarly if he had played also
agree with all you say about lucas , he will leave for west ham or some championship side or other play about 5 or 6 games and then be dropped cos he just is,nt good enough then he wont get picked for worst brazil team ever either wearing our red shirt carries a lot of prestige , we have all watched brazil games on tv curious to see what he does for them and suprise suprise he does nothing he is so poor cant believe some people,s comments saying what an asset he is he is a liability fact
ReplyDeleteagree with all you say about lucas , he will leave for west ham or some championship side or other play about 5 or 6 games and then be dropped cos he just is,nt good enough then he wont get picked for worst brazil team ever either wearing our red shirt carries a lot of prestige , we have all watched brazil games on tv curious to see what he does for them and suprise suprise he does nothing he is so poor cant believe some people,s comments saying what an asset he is he is a liability fact
ReplyDelete