Given that my favourite ever player is Cruyff, I am not a fan of how Stevie plays the game. Since he first started I could never get my head around how clueless he can be as a player. He has great physical gifts and the only reason I feel he has become the player he has become today is due to the kind of coaching he received early on in the Academy. He is an instinctive player who plays the game with his heart on his sleeve and relies mainly on his strength, technique and stamina to get by in a game but lacks the positioning, composure and tactical insight required to play as the brains of the team. Even Wigan's Roberto Martinez has spoken about how difficult it is to accomodate Stevie in midfield. And we all know what Sacchi thinks of Gerrard.
Stevie was probably taught to play the game a certain way, and has never managed to reinvent himself, or never encouraged to, until Rafa came along. That the Academy has failed to produce quality, thinking, tactically astute, intelligent players is for me a damning indictment of how far we have fallen behind since our halcyon days, which could be prolonged with Roy in charge, for a club that was known to play the game in a style " more European than the Europeans", to quote Platini back in the 80's. I truly believe that had he been coached differently from young, with emphasis on tactics and positioning he would be a completely different player and far more fearsome.
When asked what differentiated him and his peers when playing in midfield, Cruyff said that all of them had the technique, knew the tactics and had the stamina but none of them had his tactical mind which he defined as daring, trust and insight; the knowing of what to do, when to do it and being able to see things before they happen. That's why he always drummed on about how football was always played with the brain. Cruyff was adamant that the most difficult pass to make in a game was the 10-20 meter pass, which he described as the easiest thing to do but the most difficult to implement.
Maybe Stevie still sees himself as a box to box midfielder when in the modern game such a player is no longer required and the position made obsolete by the advent of specialists. His foraging runs can be extremely frustrating within a certain tactical game plan, , which is probably why we hardly see him there in big games . Such deficiencies are far less glaring against lesser oppositions.
But when used upfront, his tactical and positional shortcomings are less damaging to the team. His impressive physical prowess is harnessed to the maximum by Rafa's high pressing game and none more so evident than when the opposition wants to build from the back. They'd first have to cope with Torres's speed, Stevie's relentlessnes before they even face our midfielders, which allows Torres to get the ball higher up the pitch from shorter passes. And that is what it is all about, maximising the strengths of every player in a team to make the sum greater than its parts. Which brings me to Lucas
At 23, he is a far more intelligent player than Stevie was at the same age. His strengths are his understanding of the game, positional sense and awareness which suggest that he has been brought up to play the game the right way, typical of Brazilian midfielders. My Liverpool mad nephews who could see nothing good in Lucas earlier are now singing his praises. I told them that if they want to learn about the game watch Lucas. Whilst Stevie's strength are visceral and obvious, Lucas' are the intangibles.
For me he is the modern day water carrier with a few more tricks up his sleeves, such is his improvement since he joined us. Not bad considering the former, more limited water carriers like Dunga and Deschamps had captained their teams to World Cup glories with their metronomic displays and have also gone on to become excellent coaches too. Although Lucas is no Stevie physically, he makes up for it with his footballing brain and it's no surprise that he has struck a good understanding with Meireles, another footballer's footballer.
It's amazing how critics can cream at the sight of Barca playing their tiki-taka game and not understand what Lucas brings to the table. His calmness under pressure is exemplary and always keeps the team ticking. Even more impressive is his mental fortitude in dealing with adversities, heck even when dealing with pricks on Tweeter. He appears to be the consummate team player who is willing to put his ego aside for the good of the team and that can only be good for him, Liverpool and Brazil. Sir Bob once said that it's not about the long pass or the short pass but the right pass. He must have had someone like Lucas in mind.
It takes all sorts to make a team. A team is never about the best players but the right players. I may not be a fan of Stevie's but I do appreciate his qualities (one of the deadliest clutch players in the game) just as I admire Lucas' footballing brain but rue his snail-like pace. Rafa always talked about balance and that's what we had under him - a balanced team. As clutch a player as Stevie is without the right team balance he would be nothing and neither would the team. Unfortunately, we now have a situation where one player is allowed to revel in his favourite position which he hardly excels in to the detriment of the team. If under Rafa it 's all about the balance, under Roy it's just bollocks
