Fresh reports today suggest Liverpool midfielder Lucas Leiva wants to leave Anfield, but the Brazilian’s role in the club’s improved form is just one reason why Brendan Rodgers would be mad to let him leave.
Lucas has always inspired heated debate amongst Liverpool fans. From his early struggles following his £5 million arrival from Gremio as a 20-year-old, to the commanding displays he was delivering with increasing regularity before he was struck down with an ACL injury in December 2011, few players have seen their stock yo-yo in perceived value quite as much and as often during their careers.
Having seen Steven Gerrard shifted into his preferred deep midfield role during last season’s rollicking title near-miss, it was again assumed that Lucas was surplus to requirements, and Rodgers would likely have let the player depart Merseyside for the right offer last summer.
A January move then seemed a formality after just five starts in Liverpool’s first 18 games, but his reinstatement at the heart of the side at the end of November has coincided with a marked improvement in the team’s recent form.
Recent reports that Lucas remains unhappy with his place at the club despite his return to the starting XI, with Serie A sides Inter Milan and Napoli both linked to the player, should worry Reds fans, however, only a true cynic could have witnessed his part in the wild celebrations that followed Rickie Lambert’s strike against Aston Villa on Saturday and believe he could not be persuaded to stay.
Lucas has played every minute of the current eight-match unbeaten run that has catapulted the Reds back into the fringes of the race for Champions League qualification, and much has been made of club’s record with and without him in the side. Liverpool have lost just one of the 12 Premier League games in which Lucas has featured, while they have won just two of the ten he sat out.
Included in the latter list is the only game he has missed since his recall, a 3-0 defeat at Old Trafford that saw Liverpool control much of the game but fall victim to a Manchester United side that seized upon the visitors’ defensive frailties whenever a chance came along.
The figures are stark when illustrating the way in which Lucas’s presence in front of Liverpool’s nascent back-three has solidified what had been a stunningly ineffective rearguard. With the 28-year-old on the field, the Reds have conceded a Premier League goal every 102 minutes, without him, it is one every 59 minutes.
To put that in perspective, that is the difference between the defensive records of leaders Chelsea and bottom club Leicester.
Of course, Burnley, Swansea, Leicester, Sunderland and Villa are not the calibre of opposition against which Liverpool will ultimately be judged, but given the club’s predicament it has been a vital period of consolidation at Anfield, and with news of Steven Gerrard’s summer departure and the understanding that the skipper is no longer going to be ever present in the side, Lucas has exuded a calm authority and assurance that has extended ahead of him to the likes of Jordan Henderson and countryman Philippe Coutinho and behind him to the ever-improving Emre Can.
Knee problems have robbed Lucas of most of the pace and some of the physicality he once had, but his reading of the game remains as good, if not better, then ever and he is clearly looked up to as an elder statesman at Anfield, something that will be sorely needed in the coming 12 months when Gerrard’s exit will see Henderson promoted to the captaincy at the age of 25 and defender Martin Skrtel as the only existing first-team regular over the age of 27.
If Lucas does indeed feel undervalued at Anfield then Rodgers needs to wrap an arm around him and convince him otherwise, and to the manager’s credit he has been increasingly vocal in saying he does want to sell the Brazilian. Liverpool supporters are hoping the Irishman is sufficiently persuasive if his resolve is tested over the coming fortnight.
