Liverpool midfielder Lucas Leiva is becoming increasingly bold with his public comments about leaving the club, and this week, he's given the strongest indication yet that an Anfield exit is very much on the cards.
€12m-rated Lucas has started only two Premier League games so far this season, and when asked about his future last month, he warned:
“I want to play. I need to find a solution either at Liverpool or at another club. [if] I don’t find space at Liverpool, I should start to make a move".
Lucas also confirmed that Napoli tried to sign him over the summer:
“There was something with Napoli but it wasn’t a positive situation for both parties. Despite this, it’s true that Benitez always had great faith in me.”
Well, it seems that Lucas is now resigned to leaving Liverpool. Speaking to Radio Marca this week, he sent another indirect message to Reds boss Brendan Rodgers:
"I must think about leaving as there is no room for me at Liverpool. I'm not speaking to anyone at the moment, but I am looking around, given I am not playing".
Lucas's Agent, Henrique Coelho, is also getting in on the act, and when asked on Thursday about the possibility of a January transfer he told told Calciomercato.com.
“Is it possible that Lucas could leave Liverpool in January? Yes, naturally. Lucas really likes Rafa Benitez. After all, the two know each other well from when the Spaniard was manager of Liverpool.”
Lucas - recently hailed by Rodgers for his 'incredible' attitude - is a model professional, but unfortunately, he is now literally redundant at Anfield. Like Glen Johnson, the Brazilian is a dead man walking at Anfield, and it's surely just a matter of time before he moves on to another club.
Lucas is yet to reach the heights he attained pre-injury, but in my view, if he'd been in the team all season, Liverpool's defensive record would look much better right now. The Brazilian is the club's best dedicated defensive midfielder, but for the first part of the season, Rodgers preferred Gerrard in the role, to LFC's detriment.
Rafa Benitez signed both Lucas and Johnson, and with both players currently linked with moves to Napoli, it will be fitting if the Spaniard finishes the job and takes both players to Italy.
Author: Jaimie K
€12m-rated Lucas has started only two Premier League games so far this season, and when asked about his future last month, he warned:
“I want to play. I need to find a solution either at Liverpool or at another club. [if] I don’t find space at Liverpool, I should start to make a move".
Lucas also confirmed that Napoli tried to sign him over the summer:
“There was something with Napoli but it wasn’t a positive situation for both parties. Despite this, it’s true that Benitez always had great faith in me.”
Well, it seems that Lucas is now resigned to leaving Liverpool. Speaking to Radio Marca this week, he sent another indirect message to Reds boss Brendan Rodgers:
"I must think about leaving as there is no room for me at Liverpool. I'm not speaking to anyone at the moment, but I am looking around, given I am not playing".
Lucas's Agent, Henrique Coelho, is also getting in on the act, and when asked on Thursday about the possibility of a January transfer he told told Calciomercato.com.
“Is it possible that Lucas could leave Liverpool in January? Yes, naturally. Lucas really likes Rafa Benitez. After all, the two know each other well from when the Spaniard was manager of Liverpool.”
Lucas - recently hailed by Rodgers for his 'incredible' attitude - is a model professional, but unfortunately, he is now literally redundant at Anfield. Like Glen Johnson, the Brazilian is a dead man walking at Anfield, and it's surely just a matter of time before he moves on to another club.
Lucas is yet to reach the heights he attained pre-injury, but in my view, if he'd been in the team all season, Liverpool's defensive record would look much better right now. The Brazilian is the club's best dedicated defensive midfielder, but for the first part of the season, Rodgers preferred Gerrard in the role, to LFC's detriment.
Rafa Benitez signed both Lucas and Johnson, and with both players currently linked with moves to Napoli, it will be fitting if the Spaniard finishes the job and takes both players to Italy.
Author: Jaimie K
Its a shame L Leiva(27) has never ever had pace or mobility in his locker and he has improved over the years. But the problem is club had some amazing defensive midfielders at club during Era when he was signed( Alonso, Hamman, Mascherano and Sissoko) And he was never better than any of them.
ReplyDeleteHe has been a loyal player and given his all for the club, i was never a Lucas fan but i give the guys his dues he did come on leaps and bounds from when he first joined club and had to change from AM to DM.
He is a class quality player just the lack of mobility, pace and speed is what lets Lucas down in the role he plays as he struggles to cover ground , break up play in the fastest league in the world.
L Leiva(27) will do well in Italy as its slow football, B Rodgers should sell him for no less than £9-£11M
And then B Rodgers should replace him with either Y M'Villa(24) Of Rubin Kazan or C Tiote(28) Of Newcastle for £10-£14M
Would be great to get that kind of money for him. And if we finally sell borini, with Suso sale being almost certain and Johnson off the payrole - that would be enough to go for Reus.
ReplyDeleteid love for Rues to come to us but the way we are going theres no hope of that happening besides Chelsea now in for him also
ReplyDeleteIf they are in for him we don't really stand a chance, hoping thaey are not...
ReplyDeleteWe need Zeus not Reus
ReplyDeletecan would be bought in to be a fringe if he joined bayern
ReplyDeletei meant players liek reus or costa or sanchez or willian
players expected to break into the side and world renowned starts
We are at the point where we need to target up and coming players and Can seems to be one..even thought this frustrates me cause we should be targeting world class players established players yet geography and an unknown manager so to speak is holding us back from doing that but we need to have faith in BR through the good and bad times
ReplyDeleteI agree to a point.
ReplyDeleteI have no issues with the Moreno, Manquillo, Lovren and Can but did we really need Markoivc, Lallana, Lambert and Balotelli.
I would of much preferred we spent the what.. 60mil on those players and brought 2 outstanding strikers and utilised the youngsters we have likes Suso, Rossiter, Ibe etc
There is no god...
ReplyDeletesays you
ReplyDeleteit is well documented
ReplyDeleterodgers in one summer tried to sign mkhitaryan then willian
then konoplaynka
so rodgers clearly though he needed an attacking midfielder if rodgers has no confidence in suso he should not play him
markovic could still come good we needed someone where moses failed last year
its the striker we need someone world class we got balotelli and lambert
thank god he is leaving
ReplyDeleteSuarez comes closest followed by me then my dog
ReplyDeleteReally, I said that?!? stop stalking me!
ReplyDeleteOk 2 dogs
ReplyDeleteMate if he is going anywhere therw is a list of clubs he is more likely to fo to. It's always been a pipe dream.
ReplyDeleteYay West Ham scored
ReplyDeleteBayern he won't. Real and Barcsa doubt it. Other than Chelsea I don't see anyone ahead of us from EPL if we are top4 in Jan.
ReplyDeleteThere's Zeus!
ReplyDeleteThat is why I think BR is not the Manager for us.
ReplyDeleteI have no issue with Markovic or Lallana as players I just do not believe that we needed them.
Good call. You wouldn'tl ike him when he's angry
ReplyDeleteI actually feel really sorry for Lucas. Considering how poorly Gerrard has performed this season and when Lucas played against RM he did pretty okay considering he was short on match fitness yet he doesn't get a chance.
ReplyDeleteI would bet if you gave Lucas a run of games and dropped Gerrard we would be better defensively.
Yes Lucas does not have the passing range of Gerrard or the technical ability but certainly has the legs on him and is much better at breaking up attack play and tracking runners.
We have all seen what Lucas is capable of but BR has sidelined him to make room for a ageing Gerrard.
bad news our fellow relegation rival burnley won
ReplyDeleteand their striker ings is better then what we have
Small club won also- we are screwed. Can't see how we will score a goal unless from a penalty- could score an own goal I suppose
ReplyDeleteNewcastle in top 4 - how things can change so quickly. It's about time things changed for us- starting with Lucas starting instead of Gerrard
ReplyDeleteBetter than Stevie G as a DM, but still not good enough. Pull out all the stops and sign Carvalho, he's a real DM, and only about 22years old.
ReplyDeleteI really like Lucas and I have a lot of respect for him but I fear his time at LFC is up. I agree that our defensive record would be better if he'd played more. He and Gerrard should probably have been rotated more. Anyways wish him well.
ReplyDeleteibe scored today a 20 yard rocket apparently
ReplyDeletehim sterling and origi will give us so much pace and skill and strength on wings next season cant wait
the way ibes career is going maybe we do not need lacazettes and with origi as well , origi,sterling,ibe is fantastic options out wide
ReplyDeleteand fantastic cams in lallana and coutinho and can and henderson are strong deep lying midfielders
i would focus most my money on a world class striker maybe two and a world class cdm
a bit on the defense
...............................................martinez/bony
ReplyDeletesterling.......................................lallana................origi
...........................................can..........schiederlin
bench: doumbia , ibe , henderson , allen
And breathe
ReplyDeleteforgot coutinho
ReplyDeleteYou've got a place in the sun !! Your wan**rs number 1. Just like waldorf and sully!!!
ReplyDeletePlease only liverpool do this
ReplyDeletethe key words
ONE SEASON WONDERS
charlie adam,andy carroll, fabio borini, joe allen,simon mignolet ,markovic , adam lallana,alberto moreno,dejan lovren, iago asaps,origietc
fsg reign is littered with players who only had one exceptional season at higghest levels
buy players who at least have two seasons of consistent high performance martinez for three seasons now doumbia for 3 seaons now seriously
teh answer is spitting on our faces dont buy one season wonders
Wonder what you'd say if you disagreed with him
ReplyDeleteBut if we buy one season wonders as soon as they are available, we get to spend £20m+ on them for them to ultimately fail at our club.. it's perfect!
ReplyDeleteWhat world class player in their right mind would sign for us atm?? None, simple as that. We seen it over the summer, it's going to be even more difficult now with the crap football were playing. This lad looks the business, whatever it costs he shud be brought in, there is no other option. It's a gamble but so what
ReplyDeleteBy any chance might you mean staring us in the face? If the answer is spitting on our faces I'd just prefer not to know. You may have a point about the one season wonder thing, we do seem to sign a lot of players in the back one (or less) good seasons in the PL.
ReplyDeleteLars is a good shout if we do sell him, or we could even try and get Can suited to the position.
ReplyDeleteWhen have we ever signed a world class player? Our history is about creating world class players not buying ready made.
ReplyDeleteHow did southampton sign tadic someone who for three seasons been fantastic at everdise
ReplyDeleteeven pelle?
how did swansea sign gomis and montero ?
its about knowing where to look
we dont need world class necessarily but good players like tadic
And Poseidon and Hades.
ReplyDeleteIf there's any truth in this, then it shows that Liverpool have absolutely no intention on learning lessons from both their recent and distant past. Even if this guy cost £8M, this is not the player to change Liverpool's fortunes.
ReplyDeleteIn the first few transfer windows with FSG, we didn't spend enough on players per head. Now, we are spending the right amount per head, but buying players that don't justify their price. There is so much time to plan for the transfer windows, why do we continually get it wrong?
It's quite galling to see Manchester United starting to do well. Admittedly, they have no European football, but the formula of proven manager spending big money on proven players who want to play for said manager, seems to be working for them right now. Furthermore, they have the basis to attract even more top players and that's with no Champions' League football.
Listen to what your saying? Lucas(27), Suso(20), K Toure(33) are not getting into team when we are playing poor ahead of Gerrard(34), Coutinho(22) or Lovren(25)? So when team does improve, there is no chance of them playing.
ReplyDeleteBorini(23) is attacker and striker he should be and look a threat, but he just looks like a headless chicken everytime he plays for us as he simply is not good enough for Liverpool simple.
I like wan**r he's just a manc loving bas**d who supports the s*n. He's also welched on a bet to the hills****gh cause but most uk lfc fans know this and avoid his site like the clap. No doubt my comments will ne deleted by the power mad bas**d. YNWA JF96.
ReplyDeleteJohnson gets into the team most of the time and he is definitely dead wood. Rodgers does not know what team he is selecting so regardless of how poor these players have been, he persists with them. Borini has looked way more of a threat and has been involved way more than Balotelli has.
ReplyDeleteB Rodgers should sell L Leiva(27) as no matter how non effective S Gerrard(34) now is he starts every game as B Rodgers does not have the balls to drop S Gerrard(34).
ReplyDeleteL Leiva(27) offers more protection defensively as DM than S Gerrard(34) but B Rodgers does not drop S Gerrard(34).
E Can(20) is in the Yaya Toure(31), Diaby(28), M Dembele(27), Moussa Sissoko(25) and M Diame(27) Mould they are all athletic, strong, tall, mobile centre midfielders who are better offensively than they are defensive.
E Can(20) will not play the defensive midfielder position well, someone who can play the defensive midfielder position is J Allen(24). He plays it well for Wales and could just screen defence and offer the energy, legs, mobilty and bit of pace in front of back four S Gerrard(34) and L Leiva(27) cannot and do not offer defence.
But Can is the only realistic option (in Rodgers' eyes) that may be brought into the DM role, unless we do bring in someone else.
ReplyDeleteYour correct L Leiva(27) is a better DM than S Gerrard(34) and also offers team more protection than S Gerrard(34) but both plays do not have the energy, legs, mobility, pace or speed to play that role effectively in the Premiership. ( Fastest League in World)
ReplyDeleteAnd B Rodgers does not have the balls to drop S Gerrard(34) who is 5 years past his best and should have been playing off the bench last and this season. As he no longer dictates, dominates or stands out in centre of park unless teams give him time, which in Premiership rarely happens? Or team gets a penalty.
Other than that S Gerrard(34) is a passenger in the side.
Sacking Brendon Rodgers is the only long term solution. Period.
ReplyDeleteLook at the profile of BR - shitty tactics, ultra poor transfer business so far, jokingly poor defense, no European credentials and can't attract quality players !!
FSG has given him more than enough of everything. He must be Sacked and replaced with a proven manager.
Instead of wasting funds to buy a star striker - messiah who can save season for LFC is not going to work. Pay that money to a class manager IMO Diego Simeone and bring him to Anfield.
Look how he converts the current squad to one of a warrior's !!!
Crying and whining can't save the club now, LFC must get rid of BR !!!
I agree, but Moreno, Origi, Lallana, Markovic, and Mignolet are hardly one season wonders...
ReplyDeleteI like Berahino and think the lad has a lot of potential but he is not what we need.
ReplyDeleteLast season I would of had no problems getting him for like 7 - 8mil. He would of been a good back up player but at his age and with so little experience he would most likely wilt under the enormous pressure he would be under
Many will say, sacking Rodgers is a knee-jerk reaction to our poor start to the season. I have to agree that, however well he did last season, I have trouble seeing him as part of our future, on the basis of the points you've made.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Liverpool has time for Rodgers to learn his trade. The fact that we are still struggling to attract top players despite throwing money around and the lure of Champions' League football is disconcerting, to say the least. The other point to consider is that Comolli and Dalglish went for their profligacy in the transfer market, despite some good performances, whilst on the way to 2 cup finals and 1 trophy. Why should Rodgers' fate be any different?
Lucas has been a good servant to the club but its definitely time he moved on to a club that needs him.despite are defensive frailties he certainly isn't the answer.if we can get a good price for him & spend wisely in January we could get the right player.as much as I want players like Reus, the devil will ice skate to work before we can attract that caliber of player.unless its because we've offered obscene wages for mercenaries & they won't benefit the club in the long run.we need to be realistic as hard as that is.we do need a dm as well as a striker & possibly a couple more defenders as well.but getting rid of some high earners that underachieve is as important as anything.
ReplyDeleteSeems if any player these days puts in a performance 2 or 3 games in a row he gets a £20m price tag slapped on him and put on our transfer wishlist and we wonder why it's going pear shaped! Suso put in a shift every game on loan last season and he doesn't get near the team its baffling? Ibe was best performer during pre season and was shipped out on loan? Johnson puts in poor performance after poor performance yet Wisdom can start every game for WBA?
ReplyDeleteAlso our transfer MO seems to be ...dick around indecisively for ages while the team our target belongs to, puts a huge release clause in the players contract so he then costs us double.
ReplyDeleteExactly, Liverpool has never signed world-class players. This seems like most fans forget.
ReplyDeleteYou forgot Robbie
ReplyDeleteOn Mount Olympiacos
ReplyDeleteNot sure you discount those other teams. Would say Bayern is most likely.
ReplyDeleteHe said he won't go there. I believe him.
ReplyDeleteFair dos. Wasn't aware of it.
ReplyDelete