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Will he return to the peak of his powers?

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Lucas LFCAFTER the anti-climax of the goalless draw with West Ham, in which only one team took to the field with any intention of playing the game we all know and love, there has been little to get excited about in a footballing sense on the Red half of Merseyside this week.

The usual transfer tittle-tattle has been doing the rounds, with journalists up and down the country already in full rumour mode despite the fact that the transfer window doesn’t open for some time yet. So little of what is printed in the papers has any grounding in truth and it remains folly to take any of what you see at face value.

That’s why I won’t be losing any sleep over The Guardian’s attempt to persuade us that LFC are ready to pay over £12m for 29 year old Ashley Williams, until the unthinkable actually occurs.

There was one little nugget of gold (apart from who appeared in the midweek obituaries) to be found in the papers amidst the fantastical transfer tales this week, something which should have given all Reds fans a glowing sense of reassurance and belief for the future. That nugget was, of course, the news that Lucas Leiva, the Reds very own midfield general has signed a new long term contract, committing his future to the club.

Lucas cut his teeth in a Liverpool shirt when Rafa Benitez brought him in from Gremio, Brazil, in 2007. Originally introduced as an attacking midfielder to the Anfield crowd, it took the Brazilian a couple of seasons to win the full support of his home fans; a section of whom even took to booing him in his first seasons.

By 2009/10 however, Lucas had silenced the boo-boys, excelling, not as the attacking midfielder the crowd had been expecting but as a much more defensively minded deep-lying midfield player. Despite Liverpool only managing a 7th place finish in what was to be Rafa’s last season at the helm, Lucas shone – making more successful tackles than any other Liverpool player that year and finishing in the top three in the league for completed tackles.

With Roy Hodgson given the job of managing the football club, Lucas fell down the pecking order and, by his own admission, came very close to moving on from Merseyside, following the ill-fated signing of Chrsitian Poulsen from Juventus. Luckily for everybody connected with LFC, FSG soon gave Roy his marching orders and very quickly Lucas was back in the starting line-up. With Poulsen consigned to memory, Lucas went on to complete the most successful tackles in the Premier League that season, winning 111 clean challenges as Liverpool finished 7th.

Last season was no different for Lucas. In December, he led the way yet again, having made 52 successful challenges from 68 attempted. Despite getting injured before Christmas, Lucas remained Liverpool’s top tackler until the final weeks of the season and the injury didn’t affect his overall stats.
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EPL index compiled a table of the top defensive midfielders in the Premier League based on minutes played per challenge, be it a ground duel, an aerial duel or a straight tackle, for the season 2011/12. Guess what? Lucas topped the table! The Brazilian was ranked number one after completing a successful challenge every 5.97 minutes; better than Parker, Diame, de Jong, Fellaini, Tiote, Sandro or any other defensive midfielder you care to think of.

Since finally returning to the Liverpool starting line-up in December after two lengthy injury lay-offs, Lucas has taken some time to re-acclimatise to the rigours of life at the heart of the Reds midfield. He has taken stick from some quarters, as those with short memories (particularly amongst the Liverpool fanbase) have forgotten exactly what it is he does, and just how good he is at doing it.

He isn’t Yaya Toure or Patrick Vieira, he isn’t a powerhouse who’s going to carry the ball from box to box and drive forward every attack. What he is, is a player with the utmost skill at breaking up opposition attacks, stopping opponents from creating dangerous moves by winning the ball back in the centre of the pitch. He reads the game like few other professionals can and his ability to make well-timed clean challenges or sensible tactical fouls is second to none. Unfortunately for Lucas, his contribution can go largely unseen by its very nature, but it would be naive in the extreme to disregard its benefit to Liverpool’s well being.

It isn’t just the art of tackling which he adds to the Reds’ midfield (although that’s no small attribute to have), his anticipation means that he’s great at intercepting the ball, and ordinarily, he’s an accomplished passer of the ball, with a high accuracy percentage and an instinct to look forward with his passing.

Before his terrible luck with injuries, Lucas was, hands down the best defensive midfielder in the Premier League. Whilst he hasn’t quite reached the level that he was playing at with any consistency since his return, there have been matches and moments in matches where he has shown that level of quality and, with a solid pre-season under his belt, it seems certain to me that he’ll return next season at the peak of his powers.

With this in mind, I urge the doubters to hold fire, as we happily wish Lucas Leiva all the very best for the years to come and welcome his decision to commit his long term future to Liverpool Football Club – YNWA Lucas.

You can catch up with Neil on Twitter @Neil1980 and on his blog http://itsallinthegameblog.wordpress.com/
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10 comments

  • Erin says:

    Yes he will. A fighter and natural born winner. His greatest strength is his character. For a player , so ridiculed in his first 2 seasons to prove everyone wrong. Take some mental strength . I wish others follow his example but I’m not worried about Lucas
    YNWA

  • Voland says:

    Absolutely, Lucas will play a fundamental role in taking Liverpool back to the peak of English and European football.

  • martin says:

    no doubt he will & ,his strong character always come to the fore,i expect Lucas will be here for the remainder of his career,a great professional with a great attitude, unlike some of his team mates who cant pass a camera or reporter to make bulls* comments.

  • bj says:

    Lucas will return to his best form n next season is gonna be great for liverpool. Allen wish u quick recovery n johnson can’t be relied on cos he’s losing it.

  • Cylon says:

    OK, Lucas has played some good games, but he is the least inventive Brazilian I have ever seen. Despite his size, 6’1″, he rarely wins the 50/50 ball. He does pick up cards but he is NOT fearless. I say dump him.

    • TaintlessRed says:

      He hasn’t been at his best since the injury. He’s a touch slower and has been mistiming tackles, however we’ve still clearly improved once he came back to the team. We’ll need to see how he is after a preseason, but I think we are in need of a physical defensive midfielder, not merely as cover for Lucas but who can be a first team starter. Lucas could do with the competition.

  • simon says:

    Lucas is better than he was that is for sure but I would like to see Stevie G back there for the next few years. I would be very interested to know how the Oprta stats looked for others in a red shirt doing a similar role in the past like Mascherano, Steve McMahon, Didi Hamman. they all had class and a top player next to them in a strong partnership. For some reason we havent found a partner that works well with Lucas…..could it be Henderson?

  • manav says:

    best partner for me is to bring back Alonso to anfield.

  • olsen says:

    Better than the totally useless Allen any day

  • Pnderito says:

    We need this kenyan born Victor wanyama. The guy is class!

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