Liverpool midfielder Lucas Leiva was the clear man of the match against Manchester City on Sunday, and former Liverpool players are lining up to acknowledge the Brazilian's increasing influence on the team.
I wrote last week about how impressive Lucas's passing has become over the last couple of years, and against Man City it was more of the same: quick, incisive, positive passing, and it was a joy to watch.
Dietmar Hamann, who played a similar role to Lucas in Gerard Houllier's team, paid a glowing tribute to the midfield man:
"I think he's been a revelation over the last two years. After Mascherano left, he's grown every year. I think it was a bit unfair when fans had a go at him a few years back when he didn't perform so well. The thing is, when the team doesn't do well you have to look at the senior players.
"Lucas was 20-21 at the time - he's not going to go straight into the team and make a difference. If things go badly, he should've been the last player to be criticised; you should look at the senior player who've be here for a number of years to step up to the plate and perform better.
"He stuck at it, got his head down and worked hard at his game, and I he's been fantastic".
Jason McAteer, who commentated on the Man City game for LFC TV, added:
"Lucas Leiva was absolutely fantastic. His pass completion was 92% today; his tackling was 100%.
"I thought he had a fantastic game against Chelsea, which I thought was his best of the season, but he's gone and topped it today [against City], and I thought he was even better".
As regular visitors will know, I was never the biggest fan of Rafa Benitez's management of the club, but the positive aspects of his legacy live on, and Benitez deserves great credit for bringing Lucas to the club.
Jaimie Kanwar
I wrote last week about how impressive Lucas's passing has become over the last couple of years, and against Man City it was more of the same: quick, incisive, positive passing, and it was a joy to watch.
Dietmar Hamann, who played a similar role to Lucas in Gerard Houllier's team, paid a glowing tribute to the midfield man:
"I think he's been a revelation over the last two years. After Mascherano left, he's grown every year. I think it was a bit unfair when fans had a go at him a few years back when he didn't perform so well. The thing is, when the team doesn't do well you have to look at the senior players.
"Lucas was 20-21 at the time - he's not going to go straight into the team and make a difference. If things go badly, he should've been the last player to be criticised; you should look at the senior player who've be here for a number of years to step up to the plate and perform better.
"He stuck at it, got his head down and worked hard at his game, and I he's been fantastic".
Jason McAteer, who commentated on the Man City game for LFC TV, added:
"Lucas Leiva was absolutely fantastic. His pass completion was 92% today; his tackling was 100%.
"I thought he had a fantastic game against Chelsea, which I thought was his best of the season, but he's gone and topped it today [against City], and I thought he was even better".
As regular visitors will know, I was never the biggest fan of Rafa Benitez's management of the club, but the positive aspects of his legacy live on, and Benitez deserves great credit for bringing Lucas to the club.
Jaimie Kanwar
Wow. Nice one Jamie.
ReplyDeleteI think more importantly the relationship between Adam and Lucas is flourishing.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for Stevie to come back into the mix and join this team.
SSpot on Jamie ..
ReplyDelete.Rafa made some mistakes but people still put their own hatred of Rafa first and Lucas is a easy target all the time...
Carroll is bought for 35million and people rightly feel he needs a year or two....some even want to give downing a two year setting in period because he had to move less than 50miles..
Lucas was meant to perform from day one as if he only came from down road instead of Brazil.
.but Lucas from day one has been a victim and still suffers...milk is black for some people no matter what...respect to Lucas ..two fingers to those haters
Time to swallow the pride about Rafa now at last mate. He's gone - let it go. Everyone agrees he was ace. Come over to our side and watch the angry bitterness just melt away in a glorious sea of tapas and chorizo.
ReplyDeleteI think Lucas is the best and most important player for LFC this season. He deserves all the plaudits. As for Benitez he never had that much money to spent and play as KK has done. I would love to see Rafa back at LFC in the near future.
ReplyDeleteagree as regards to Lucas, for me that man city game was his best game by far in a Liverpool shirt. he frustrated the city midfield and did not let them play their swift passing game(most of the time). deserved his man of the match award and if he plays like that for the rest of the season Liverpool will in the race for a top four spot.(as long as we start converting these chances into goals and draws into wins)
ReplyDeleteWholeheartedly agree. It's to pleasing to see that the lad's efforts are starting to receive due recognition. Can't wait to see what his No 1 fan, Ashfah Hussain, has to say !
ReplyDeleteAll I have to say is after 08/09 at Fulham he has come a long long way, hard work, guts, and the will to win praise from the very fans that booed him.
ReplyDeleteHe has worked on his game a lot, and just a quick note to all the Lucas haters, believe me he is on the radar at the moment as most teams in Serie A and La Liga would love a midfielder who can break up play and distribute (calmy) as he does, and he is very important to this team, even prior to the Man City game.
The mantra "In Rafa we Trust" lasted beyond Rafa's reign as manager. I always thought the criticism of Lucas was unfair. Now look...just call us Leivapool ;) I jest, I jest
ReplyDeletei think the man of the match was hart after those miracles he made. i think this year we can't make top 4 cause we aren't lucky. we play good football and do not win. yesterday i waited for maxi to enter after the good performance he made against chelsea but kk left him aside. hope for better results during the festive season.
ReplyDeleteStats should he has made the most successful tackles in the EPL YTD. Was fantastic yesterday. Our midfield dealt superbly with the best creative player in Europe behind Messi on current form in David Silva.
ReplyDeleteI think the lesson from the last two games is we look a lot better with some variation of 4-5-1 or 4-2-3-1. I'd start that formation in every EPL game. Last season it worked really well for us too.
Sorry of that means Andy Carroll spends a lot of time on the bench. His job should be to train hard, maintain his fitness and do well when he comes on. No complaints yesterday. He won every ball in the air. But we need somebody willing to follow up on his knockdowns.
Lastly, it will take a whole squad to get a European Champion's League spot.
u mean cant wait for stevie to come back and replace adam
ReplyDeletelove lucas. next jersey definitly gonna be a lucas jersey.
ReplyDeleteThe only reason we did not win is that far two few changes (only 1) were made and very late at that(after 8 min).
ReplyDeleteCarrol and Maxi should have been introduced in the 70th minute.
Carroll is still young, he'll need some time to learn to fit in; Downing should do much better with his experience but we'll see.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of Lucas haters even during Rafa's prime time in 2008/09, so I doubt it's got anything to do with the connection with Rafa. We had no other options but to rely on a young, inexperienced Lucas to fill in Xabi's shoes when the latter left. He was too young to be thrown into central of the park, let alone the DM, which is one of the most important position in modern football. People expect every Liverpool DM to be Xabi
I love it when Lucas tackles. Its a breath of fresh air to see him play great. Ran his legs out against City, I just hope he has the same energy levels for Chelsea or he may be rested. The more confident he is the better, people forget he was the captain of Brazil U21 and won individual awards before ever signing for Liverpool.
ReplyDeleteCan't comment on this, as my praise of Lucas on the Suarez thread was removed for not being football related and therefore breaking the site rules.
ReplyDeleteCan't disagree with Jaimie, can't agree with him. Love you Jaimie
ReplyDeleteOne player does not make a team. This is all about teamwork. Let's concentrate on the next match against Chelsea. We may lose focus if we start gloating about one player.
ReplyDeleteThat Lucas is good I never had doubts about it, after all the kid was trying to play his trade with Gerrard at his prime, Alonso at his best and Mashcerano the best CDM around at the tender age of 21. This is not to say that he didnt look bad but I knew he would come good. Almost any brazilian of his age after a year would start moaning and in their 2 year probably would have left. But Lucas had that air of determination about him and in every interview he said he is trying some thing new. Be it Jim to toughen up, defensive training or the more tactical decision when to push forward. The lad showed superb mental strenght during his rough days and now he is reaping the rewards. And lets not forget that he has been mister consistency for the last 3 years. I cant even remember the last time he was injured. (Touch wood) Hope he continues like this and maybe finds his shooting boots which he once had during the U21 brasil time.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree with you Liverpool can't make top 4, if Liverpool had won those games which they should have won, then we would be talking about winning the league but Liverpool are close to top 4 spot and have squad depth to reach top 4 and also no european games will only favor them in their quest over their rivals.
ReplyDeleteHow can you say Hart was the man of the match and not Lucas, hart made only one world class save at the end whereas other saves were regulation saves and any decent keeper would have made them whereas Lucas was everywhere in the midfield he was winning every tackle, every header and making lots of interceptions. Lucas had Silva and Toure in his pocket for whole game and, Silva and Toure had been tearing apart every team in the league before Liverpool.
If Rafa were still the manager he most likely would have bought Adebayor and Juan Mata with the 35mil spent on Carroll.....and the 20 mil wasted on Downing could have been saved!!!!
ReplyDeleteIf Rafa were still the manager he most likely would have bought Adebayor
ReplyDeleteand Juan Mata with the 35mil spent on Carroll.....and the 20 mil wasted
on Downing could have been saved!!!!
Anything to avoid giving the lad credit.
ReplyDeleteOr he might've been "forced" to buy players like Robbie Keane and Johnson again eh...
ReplyDeleteHe was playing every game in yesteryear and was a massive reason for the team's downfall. He was rightly criticized for those performances, wasn't taken out of the firing line and had to just keep on playing.
ReplyDeleteHe has developed over time and is now a good defensive midfielder. This does not make previous criticisms of his play invalid. Nor does it prove that it was worthwhile persisting with him at the severe detriment of the team in order that we now have the player that he has become.
What has happened in the past has happened though and can't be changed. There is no need to go overboard (player of the this season? Really??) but he has developed into a good player that is very deserving of his role in the team now. Simple as.