When Lucas Leiva joined Liverpool in 2007 from Brazilian club Gremio, many Liverpool fans had never heard of the midfielder and he did not help his cause by having a terrible debut season for the club. Many fans did not think he would make it but fast forward to this season and we can now see how much Lucas has upped his games since 2007.
John Aldridge has come out and said how he thought Lucas was awful during his first season but now the ex-Liverpool striker has proved him wrong.
Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, Aldridge said, “In his first season with us he was awful and I didn’t even see shades of a player. But since then he has blossomed. Rafa Benitez bought him and showed a lot of faith in him. Roy Hodgson and Kenny Dalglish kept playing him.
Lucas has rolled his sleeves up and silenced his critics. In the absence of Steven Gerrard, he has raised his game to help make up for the loss of the skipper.
Defensively, he was excellent on Sunday. He was up against one of the best midfielders in the country in Yaya Toure but his quality shone through.
People have questioned whether Charlie Adam and Lucas can play together. But they have shown in the big games that they are well equipped to work as a partnership.”
Sorry, Aldo, great player and all but you are clueless. You slammed Lucas even last season saying that you “now thought he was good enough as a squad player”. The fact is when Lucas came to England he was 19 and didn’t speak the language. He had Alonso and Mascha in front of him and he was Brazilian (and the Brazilian player of the year). Fans were expecting mazy runs and flicks and he’s not that kind of player. He didn’t do much to write home about to start with but he was never that bad and always worked hard and gave 100%. I’ve always rated him highly but now see him as up there with any central midfielder of his ilk – he is THAT good. Aldo has just jumped on the bandwagon.
Well said Warren.
I was lucky enough to catch quite a few games of Lucas playing in the reserves and you could tell then that he was a class player.
When he was called upon to fill the gap left by Alonso, Lucas any Masch were filling the same role. As neither could duplicate the role it was the younger and less experienced player that took the criticism.
I don’t deny that he made a couple of stunning cock-ups which did test the patience, but it was so easy for so called supporters to jump on the band wagon.
Perhaps Lucas have had an easier ride if Phil Neville hadn’t hand balled Lucas’s goal off line in the derby.
I’m not going to ask Lucas to keep up the good work, I think he’s proved that he’s good enough to keep improving.
Time will tell whether he’s going to make the grade in the premiership. Don’t give him a false start.