Lucas "fu*king" Leiva

Mr Alan · 12-11-2009 12:23AM #1

this lad at any given time seems to be being discussed in a few threads, figured we may as well have the definative discussion.

imo this lad is a victim of one of the worst things about the modern game, he has been torn to pieces by pundits in the early stages of his career in a new country & subsequently they choose to make him the scape goat whenever anything goes wrong with Liverpool as they are too lazy or ****ing stupid to realise they were wrong.

he made some mistakes, some bad mistakes in his early career, but since then he has always improved & has been among the best players for Liverpool so far this season (not that that really says much).

When relied upon he has always delivered the goods, in his league debut for crying out loud-against Everton in Goodison & chasing the game-Rafa took off Steven Gerrard much to peoples astonishment...the young brazilian stepped forward & came on the replace him. Within a few minutes, he had a shot cleared off the line with Nevilles hand & the subsequent peno was converted & we won the game. What a way to make your entrance.

he then proceeded to drift in & out of the team & not do too well, rarely poor, but very very average....this was compounded by a couple of silly fouls etc, the anfield "faithful" even boo'd him on an occassion or two.....but he kept his head down & kept working. comes back into the side for a few league games, serves up great performances against Newcastle (his pass for Gerrards goal was one of the best i saw from anyone last season)& Bolton for example.

His team mates praised him for the work he does for the team & his ability. Season goes on & he starts playing a little more regularly, clearly gains confidence.

fans start to get off his back...

Started both games against Inter Milan in the CL when we went on to knock them out winning home & away.

Started against Chelsea in Stamford Bridge in the classic CL quarter final last year, put in an excellent performance & scored.

Started against Utd when they were demolished at Old Trafford last year. Started against Utd this season when once again they were totally dominated in Anfield.

Excellent games this season against Lyon,Stoke,Birmingham,Utd,Hull off the top of my head....yet still, because of some funny quotes from Eammon Dunphy people think he is an abomination, an awful footballer.

Absolute infuriating bollox. Dunphy is ****ing clueless, this is the same fella who claimed last year that as the RTE panels expert on Spanish football that Athletico were the dark horses for the comp, they proceeded to be knocked out by Liverpool & he did a 180 on that, going through their team line up stated that Maxi Rodriguez is nothing more than a half decent journey man......wtf?! honestly, the guy has no clue & people are all the dumber for thinking anything he says holds any weight.

imo Lucas is an extremely talented young player who is improving all the time, has a great attitude & loads of ability. for 5.5m or watever was paid, he has already proven to be a great buy & he is now firmly a fan favourite as demonstrated by the standing ovation he recd when coming off on monday night after yet another very good personal performance.

his only crime seems to be that he is not Xabi Alonso....well **** me, that ain't much of a crime.

sorry about the rant, just gets on my tits.

mayordenis · 12-11-2009 12:24AM

He's 2 days younger than me.

~Rebel~ · 12-11-2009 12:27AM

I have images of a sleeping Fink suddenly springing wide awake in a cold sweat feeling an uncontrollable unexplainable urge to get to her computer.

DM_7 · 12-11-2009 12:28AM

What exactly are you asking?

I'm not being cheeky just not sure what you are expecting in reply!

Paul Tergat · 12-11-2009 12:28AM

Mr Alan wrote: »

figured we may as well have the definative discussion.

lol, good luck with that.

He's a squad player who will come in and do a decent job when asked. Every big club needs them.

PCPhoto · 12-11-2009 12:28AM

not a big Lucas fan myself ..... he's been a decent performer but for me he doesnt have the physical presence to perform consistantly in the premierleague (all in good time I suppose)

his passing is pretty good but gets pushed off the ball a bit too much for me.

everdead.ie · 12-11-2009 12:29AM

Too much talking not enough performing for me on the pitch

Eire-Dearg · 12-11-2009 12:30AM

Here here.

Mr Alan · 12-11-2009 12:30AM

DM-ICE wrote: »

What exactly are you asking?

I'm not being cheeky just not sure what you are expecting in reply!

just trying to focus the discussion of him to one place.

PCPhoto wrote: »

not a big Lucas fan myself ..... he's been a decent performer but for me he doesnt have the physical presence to perform consistantly in the premierleague (all in good time I suppose)

his passing is pretty good but gets pushed off the ball a bit too much for me.

the physical aspect is one of the things that he has improved on most imo, numerous times this season i've seen him compete with much more physical midfielders than him both in tackles on the floor & in the air & come off as the winner.

Jesus Wept · 12-11-2009 12:32AM

I'd prefer a Voronin thread.

mink_man · 12-11-2009 12:33AM

is that not craig bellmay in the pic? :pac:

~Rebel~ · 12-11-2009 12:33AM

Mr Alan wrote: »

just trying to focus the discussion of him to one place.

the physical aspect is one of the things that he has improved on most imo, numerous times this season i've seen him compete with much more physical midfielders than him both in tackles on the floor & in the air & come off as the winner.

aye, he's much stronger now then when he joined. If anything one of his weak points is that he can give away silly fouls by using too much strength when trying to unsettle players on the ball, a bit of restraint might see him give away less silly fouls for barging.

dannydiamond · 12-11-2009 12:33AM

everdead.ie wrote: »

Too much talking not enough performing for me on the pitch

Talking? He's performed plenty imo.

Tusky · 12-11-2009 12:33AM

I was never a big fan of Lucas and was unsure if he would come good. However, he has worked really hard and particularly in the last 10 games he has started to impress me. He actually has quite a good range of passing, something that was lacking from his game initially. He played some lovely direct forward passes against Birmingham for example.

Hes quite strong on the ball, good in the air and has great stamina. He also has a fantastic attitude.

Needs to improve on his shooting and could do without giving away so many free kicks in dangerous areas.

Overall, definitely worth the money paid, a v.good squad player and may develop into something more.

whatawaster · 12-11-2009 12:34AM

Alan i know you mean well, but why???

Mr Alan · 12-11-2009 12:35AM

everdead.ie wrote: »

Too much talking not enough performing for me on the pitch

too much talking not enough performing on the pitch...picking JUST massive games..

Inter Milan CL both legs.
Man Utd at Old Trafford
Man Utd at Anfield
Chelsea Stamford Bridge quarter final
Lyon away in the CL this year

not to mention that he has been our best midfielder this season quite comfortably outperforming Mascherano to the extent that a lot of Liverpool fans feel he is deserving of keeping his place on current form when Aquilani emerges.

ziggy · 12-11-2009 12:35AM

This post has been deleted.

dannydiamond · 12-11-2009 12:36AM

whatawaster wrote: »

Alan i know you mean well, but why???

I'm guessing to keep it out of other threads so much and let people vent/praise here rather than every single thread related to Liverpool regurgitating the same old Lucas stuff?

Paleface · 12-11-2009 12:37AM

You could compile a similar profile for most players, singling out the good that they have done and ignoring the rest. At the end of the day its the complete picture that makes any footballer.

He's not as bad as most people think or he wouldn't be playing for Liverpool on a regular basis.

But at the same time I don't think an in form Lucas is the answer to their current dilemma.

dannydiamond · 12-11-2009 12:38AM

Paleface wrote: »

But at the same time I don't think an in form Lucas is the answer to their current dilemma.

The club has no other option atm.

monkey9 · 12-11-2009 12:39AM

He's been playing well this season. At times, i feel the game can pass him by, but he has been steadily improving and gaining in confidence.
People just keep repeating themselves with their criticism and can't seem to evolve their opinions of him in tandem with his progress!!

Mr Alan · 12-11-2009 12:40AM

everdead.ie wrote: »

But at the same time I don't think an in form Lucas is the answer to their current dilemma.

this is the thing, no one is claiming he is. however, there is certain clowns who seem to think that he is virtually the cause of the dilemma. a couple of regulars in the Liverpool thread constantly abuse him & claim he is not fit to wear the jersey, even after how well he has done this season, its unbelievable quite frankly.

all anyone is saying is that he is a good player who is doing a very good job for us at the minute in difficult circumstances after being thrown in at the deep end.

DM_7 · 12-11-2009 12:40AM

mink_man wrote: »

is that not craig bellmay in the pic? :pac:

At first I thaough it was Lucas Chadwick but Bellamy fits better.

For what its worth I think he is average for the type of player that plays at a top side.

He has the potential to be well above that level based on how much he has improved in his position and adapted to liverpools style.

I can understand Liverpool fasn supporting him. They see him play each week and want to see the good things he does.

In many cases fans of other teams forget the good things he does and will only see the few bad things, jump all over them and say he is ****e

CHD · 12-11-2009 12:45AM

So now there will be 4 threads of people disagreeing about him. Thanks!

everdead.ie · 12-11-2009 12:53AM

dannydiamond wrote: »

Talking? He's performed plenty imo.

IMO just an opinion but he's always giving out looking for cards for players on the pitch and i haven't seen anything myself to think he's good enough for liverpool

flahavaj · 12-11-2009 12:55AM

*Stabs eyeballs with compass*

You should be banned for life for this Al.

Decent squad player, harshly singled out, improving over time.

/thread.

dannydiamond · 12-11-2009 12:57AM

Lucas has been chucked in at the deep end so to speak because of the current situation at the club.
I'm pretty sure that Rafas plans weren't for him to be in this situation relatively early in his career.
He's 22 years old lads,in the middle of a huge crisis at one of the biggest clubs in world football! He's handling it all pretty damn well imo and getting better as the games go by.
It must be very tough on him and I think he's handling it all beautifully.

He has come in to fill the boots of Xavi Alonso which was never meant to happen,thats a bloody big ask, He came to Liverpool as a very talented youngster and has progressed very well as far as I can see,ideally he wouldn't be in this position but he is and has done all that has been asked of him. My guess is that Rafa is very happy with him and that should be a massive compliment for a young lad coming into that position.

I think he'll be at the club for a very long time,and I hope he is tbh.

Mr Alan · 12-11-2009 12:57AM

always giving out to ref looking for cards for players?!

wow.

just when i thought i couldn't hear a new false accusation to be thrown at him!

i think i may have seen him do that once or twice is his time at Liverpool, he is not even the Liverpool central midfielder who moans the most.

strange criticism.

dannydiamond · 12-11-2009 12:59AM

everdead.ie wrote: »

IMO just an opinion but he's always giving out looking for cards for players on the pitch and i haven't seen anything myself to think he's good enough for liverpool

Put a player from our current squad in that position for our next game for me?

mayordenis · 12-11-2009 01:00AM

everdead.ie wrote: »

IMO just an opinion but he's always giving out looking for cards for players on the pitch and i haven't seen anything myself to think he's good enough for liverpool

I can't say he doesn't but I've never seen it myself - I'll look out for that, it's something I hate.

Kess73 · 12-11-2009 01:00AM

Lucas Lucas Lucas.

Hardly a week goes by without some massive overblown debate about him in the Liverpool superthread.

Now he has a thread of his own. Rarely have I seen a player divide the fans of one club so much. From what I can see in the superthread over the last few months is three groups.

Those who think Lucas is somewhere between very good and brilliant, and will fight to the death to defend his name.

Those who think that Lucas is muck and seem to pounce on every error the kid makes, and some that he does not make. This lot will fight to the bitter end to try and get everyone to agree that Lucas is the worst player in the world. EVER.

Then there is the third group, that I would fall into. Who see that Lucas is a decent squad player, a bit raw at times. Not a great player, but good enough for the job he is being asked to do at present, and nowhere near being a bad player. But he is a player that has improved, and one that I will give credit to for never hiding, regardless of how he is playing that day.

What has not helped Lucas is the fact that a lot of the big names at the club simply have not turned up when they have played this year. Of course the fact that Alonso is gone has only made the job Lucas got that bit more difficult as Lucas could not hope to play like Alonso, and could never hope to set a game's tempo like Alonso could. The flipside of that is if Alonso had never left, then the whole Lucas debate would most likely not have happened and neither would this thread, as Lucas would not have displaced Alonso in the team, not a chance as an Alonso at 70% would get into the Liverpool centre of midfield before Lucas and before Mascherano for that matter.

What I do hope though is that this thread can become the new battleground for Lucas debates, and that they can be moved from the superthread in the future should they pop up there.

I reckon fans of other clubs would not believe how often the Lucas issue gets discussed and how circular the arguments are over him.

Lucas "fu*king" Leiva

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