That Arsenal fans have very little to crow about, despite beating City by two goals today. I think.
Lucas is staying
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Is that how Ned Flanders says no brainer?
I think he's been excellent the last few weeks. Called upon to help shore up a complete defensive disaster show, he's been a big part of our improvement. Model pro, good lad and an asset. Would be mad to sell him now. I expect him to leave in the summer and then BR to not have any defensive minded midfielders at the club.
Yes, Carra seems to rate him.
http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/29327/9653276/jamie-carragher-lucas-leiva
http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/29327/9653276/jamie-carragher-lucas-leiva
"ever-present in the heart of midfield, starting nine of their last 10 Premier League games."
This is Lucas's best run of form since he signed for us and I hope it continues BUT of those 9 games 4 were against Sunderland & Leicester home & away; they must be (along with Villa and QPR) the worst teams in the EPL at present. Other games included a terrible Villa team, Burnley away and Stoke at home.
Apart from Swansea and Arsenal (both home games) I'd have expected us to win the other comfortably whether Lucas played or not. Also, our midfield was overrun on quite a few occasions by some of these poor team; Burnley away, Leicester home & away and Stoke at home so these weren't comfortable wins.
I hope I'm wrong but I have this feeling that Lucas is gonna be less impressive tonight and in upcoming games against the likes of West Ham, Southampton, and United.
As I said at the beginning, fair play to him he's playing well and you can only judge him on the games he's played so far but 7 years of watching him means he's gonna need to be as effective against better opposition before I start banging the Lucas drum.
Apart from Swansea and Arsenal (both home games) I'd have expected us to win the other comfortably whether Lucas played or not. Also, our midfield was overrun on quite a few occasions by some of these poor team; Burnley away, Leicester home & away and Stoke at home so these weren't comfortable wins.
I hope I'm wrong but I have this feeling that Lucas is gonna be less impressive tonight and in upcoming games against the likes of West Ham, Southampton, and United.
As I said at the beginning, fair play to him he's playing well and you can only judge him on the games he's played so far but 7 years of watching him means he's gonna need to be as effective against better opposition before I start banging the Lucas drum.
But the team such that it was, would have ended up losing those games without Lucas. Whatever happens from now he's made an important contribution in what will hopefully be his final season.
Can't argue with that I suppose, the Gerrard/Henderson CM axis gave the defence no cover whatsoever.
Which is amazing, because it would take all of a 5 minute conversation with Gerrard telling him to chill the fuck out on the pitch. Rodger's didn't have the balls to have that conversation, so opted to have a different stupid one about managing his game time. Which worked out well.
I doubt it would have been that simple TBH. It's far from certain that Gerrard would have been either willing or able to follow such guidance.
Well mate he just fucking bossed the entire middle of the ground against Matic, Fabregas, and Mikel.
It's easy to be a detractor, I get it. But this guy is quite simply a very good footballer, who makes us play better.
Last season when we had a system that didn't require Lucas, we didn't lose any games period.
Yeah we had a system that required a Luis Suarez.
Spearing is pretty irrelevant and your typical side swipe - shall we reiterate that his competition in that role over the last 5yrs has been Spearing and that Danish chap?
Lucas has had poor spells when we've been crying out for competition there and people have asked for it because it's been needed. As said, last season there were times when we just didn't need it and the results spoke for themselves. And there were times when we ignored the need for a DM and it cost us. It's six of one, half a dozen of the other. When he's in this form he's great and it's been the tonic we've needed, because we've seriously lacked experience and a cool head in the middle of the park, let's not rewrite history though.
Because Rodgers thought Lambert and Balotelli were adequate. What I'm saying is Lucas is a great contingency plan when you fuck up and need to get some results in a fight for fourth. He isn't so great when you need to win game after game.
Yes, defensive midfielders like Lucas aren't so great when you need to win games.
I'm sure Mourinho is trying desperately to get Matic out of his side so he can shore up the title. Kinda like he did with Makalele.
It's obvious we need one, I think at times last season we were just so good at killing teams early, that it negated the need for a DM, we wore teams down with our pressing and (generally) put games out of sight. Now that's not the case we have needed a rethink. It's kind of commendable that Rodgers didn't want to be quite so pragmatic, but he should learn from the best on that note and if he is ever going to push on to being the great manager he has the potential to be, then he needs to learn about having a structure to his side, to compliment the attacking verve he seems to be so good at implementing.
I think that's fair enough. He seems to be slowly taking it on board anyway.
Correct. To win 10 games in a row the goals need to come easy. When they don't come there is no point having Gerrard/baller hitting passes for Balotelli to shoot wide.
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