The Reds veteran understands the derby importance after replacing the captain on his debut
If you’ve been behind Lucas Leiva since he arrived at Anfield over 9 years ago, you’ll no doubt remember the (at that time) long-haired, lanky youngster coming off the bench and taking to the game like it was any other.
The midfielder replaced talismanic captain Steven Gerrard for the last 20 minutes on his derby debut, much to many fan’s dismay, but came close to winning the game himself before winning the penalty that wrapped up the points. It was a hell of a debut but the simple fact he replaced the captain and was seen, by many, as a direct threat meant a lot of fans took a while to warm to him.
But almost a decade on, Lucas is Liverpool’s current longest serving player and his experience will be invaluable tonight, in the absence of both Jordan Henderson and Emre Can.
And the 29 year old has played in plenty of derbies since to know the importance of the game to Liverpool fans since. Speaking to Liverpoolfc.com, he said: “You understand more, you have people from the city around you, which makes you think a lot more about the game and the emotions.
“I remember very clearly Stevie and Carra on the day of the game – they couldn’t stand still for five seconds because they were so excited for the game. It’s good, that feeling.
“Of course you have to control the emotion and try to approach it as a normal game because it’s another three points like all the games we have played during the Premier League season. But we know that if you win the feeling would be special.”
There’s been no winners in the past three head-to-heads between the two sides but Liverpool will be confident going into the game, on their recent form. And Lucas is hoping the players and fans can go some way to repeating the atmosphere, and result, of last Thursday. He continued: “We hope it will be a similar atmosphere but not a similar game, I would say. We don’t need many games like that during the season!
“The fans can’t wait to see us again and we can’t wait to play at Anfield, especially after that win and even more now with a derby game.
“It’s all positive and we are on a good run, so hopefully we get another three points, which would be important. We would be closer to the other teams up the table.
“As the manager has said to us, we still have 18 points to play for and we should focus on getting all of them if we can.
“We are in a good moment, and Everton are in the FA Cup semi-finals so they will come with a lot of confidence even though their position in the Premier League table is not the best for them at the moment. They have all the factors to be positive.
“It’s going to be another hard game, a difficult game. But I think playing at Anfield, especially with the atmosphere that is being created as the season goes on, it’s all positive for us to get a win.”
