To begin with, has Lucas Leiva ever been a fans' favourite? or have his abilities constantly been criticised among the Anfield Faithful since he joined the club? Personally speaking, I reckon he's had one or maybe two "good" seasons at Liverpool since he signed from Gremio in 2007, as a 20 year old, long haired brazilian with a lot to live up to after arriving on the back of winning the young player of the season award in the Brazilian leauge.
Secondly, is it time for him to move on, in search of first team fooball? At the age of 27 he is now considered to be amongst the second string of Brendan's team and keeps slipping down the pecking order as the season goes on, especially with the arrival of Emre Can. Although he started and put in a solid performance against Real Madrid which wasn't enough for him to keep his place in the starting 11 for the crucial Premier leauge fixture against Chelsea last Saturday.
My personal view is, now is the right time for Lucas to make that important career move. If he goes now he would leave Anfield with his hands held high after proving many critics wrong since his first couple of years at the club were dubbed as disappointing, a probable flop signing.
Expectation was probably the main reason for him underperforming. Nevertheless, he stuck with it, and for a young lad he took his criticism on his chest and worked hard in training to break into Rafa's midfield. His shifts were always hardworking and he nearly always wore his shirt on his sleeve.
However, the problem with Lucas is that he is not a technically gifted footballer. His passing is somewhat wayward, his shooting isn't the best (apart from his finish against Steaua). Furthermore, how many times have we seem him give needless free kicks away in dangerous positions?
Therefore, starting against Madrid wouldn't have done anything for Lucas's confidence as he knew that Rodgers was resting other players and he wasn't really in the starting 11 on merit.
Lucas Leiva is the last of his generation of players yet to move on. Socially, Lucas was very much connected to the "South American Quartet" which consisted of himself, Luis Suárez, Coates and Maxi Rodriguez. He also had strong friendships with Dirk Kuyt and Pepe Reina who are no longer at the club.
To sum up, there are two ways of looking at this; on the one hand, from the point of view of Liverpool Football Club and on the other hand taking into consideration the players future. Lucas has been a fine servant to the club, but being too inconsistent has meant the manager and the fans have lost confidence in him.
He has proved us wrong before so he could do it again but with three or four other players favored in his position, a January move would be the most sensible for the lad. YNWA
I'm inclined to agree, Lucas had two good seasons and then got injured. In my view he hasn't managed to get back to where he was in 2012 when he was vying to be one of the most promising defensive midfielders in the EPL. sadly, he is the type of player (on form) that we are crying out for at the moment. My money is on him ending up at Napoli by the end of the January transfer window, which is a shame, he promised so much. Stephen :o)
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