I'd point out that he's only 22 but it'd be lost on some of the critics, and indeed some of the sycophants who have spent the summer insisting he was ready to boss the midfield on a weekly basis for a team that's comfortable sitting at Europe's top table.
I'm not sure where this idea that at 22 he should be ready to run the midfield for a club of Liverpool's stature has come from. It'd be a big ask for him if he'd just stepped off the plane from Real Madrid and was asked to do that, but it's a ridiculous ask of a kid who's been making the general's coffee for the past two seasons to now step into his boots and lead the troops to war.
Maybe this retarded notion that he should be bossing games at 22 has stemmed from the fact that Alonso came straight into the fold at that age and looked at home? And of course, Alonso is the player he is replacing so that's who he should be judged by.
Alonso was a freak. He was a 22 year old playing with the presence and the awareness of someone ten years his senior. That's not every midfielder at 22. That's very few in fact. Where were Michael Ballack and Frank Lampard at 22? Had they even moved to Leverkusen and Chelsea? Where was Andrea Pirlo? Just coming off the back of a spell at Brescia and still playing behind the strikers. Xavi (along with Essien) probably the best midfielder in the world - I don't remember people salivating over him 'til the 2nd half of the 2003-04 season (Rafa's last in Spain) after Barcelona (inspired by Ronaldinho and kick started by Edgar Davids) went on a great run to finish 2nd. Before then, in this country at least, I seem to remember him being considered potential in some very average Barcelona teams. He started growing as a presence at 24.
You get the occasional freak; your Vieira's, Alonso's, Essien's and so forth, but there've been plenty of incredibly talented midfielders who have been nowhere at 22. They certainly weren't running the midfield at a team that expects to be winning leagues and European cups.
Lucas is the foil not the focus of the midfield. As soon as people start excepting that then he may have a chance. I'm sure I read the other day that Mascherano made nearly twice as many passes as him at home to Stoke, but then Lucas gets talked up as if he ran the midfield (I thought Yossi was the hub of everything productive going forward myself) which then becomes the rod for his back when he doesn't have a good game. Maybe instead of asking Lucas to run the midfield on a weekly basis the attention should shift to one of the best midfielders in the world, the captain of Argen-bloody-tina, as good a passing team as there has been in the world for years now, to take it upon himself to run the middle of the park? Christ knows he hasn't been close to that in the first few games. I don't know whether his head is in his 'paltry' pay packet, his missus visa application or floating around La Rambla. I don't give a toss either. He should be the general in that midfield, not leaving Lucas there to be slaughtered.
Lucas reminds me a little of Gago at Real Madrid. Both came over to Europe with the reputations for running midfields in South America and both are just too young and raw to do it over in Europe, much less at two of the continent's biggest clubs. You shouldn't expect them to be able to. They're not up against top draw players on a weekly basis in Brazil or Argentina. The talent leaves younger and younger and returns older and older and everything else in-between just isn't good enough for the football over here. Sad, but not far from the truth.
Maybe if Mascherano picks his game up then Lucas won’t be weighed down by the burden of running an entire midfield. He’s not ready to do it week to week. Occasionally he may be able to take a grip of a game (and he’s quite capable of doing it for 10-15 minutes spells) but Christ almighty he’s got an impossible task if people are asking him to run a midfield with the worlds best footballer and the captain of Argentina at the age of 22. It’s progress that he’s being less deferential than he was last season, but he’s not going to go from Oliver Twist to Gunnery Sergeant overnight.
If Mascherano gets his head out of the clouds and starts running a midfield like he’s well capable of then Lucas is a smart lieutenant who can take the reigns and the burden for periods in a match (and perhaps eventually over the season) as he develops. Just lay off the lad expecting him to be Alonso at 22. It’s not his fault Xabi moaned like a little bitch and fucked off after being given the incentive to have the best season of his career. He’s trying for fuck sakes. He’s having the occasional pop, he’s trying to get forward, he’s trying to play give and goes in dangerous areas, and he’s trying to get up and down the pitch for 90 minutes in the most frantic league in the world. He’s showing that he can do more than pass a ball sideways. A nice pirouette against Villa, a tenacious tackle against Stoke, a strong run against Spurs. He could show a bit more of course. He could engage the opposition midfield with the ball, run at them and show them that they’re not getting it off him without fouling him. He could occasionally just have a pop at goal instead of moving the ball sideways. Take the initiative. It’s not a surprise that he doesn’t do any of that though considering the groans he’d receive if he fucked up. It’s a vicious cycle. Player low on confidence doesn’t try the spectacular to avoid abuse. Player gets abuse for not doing the spectacular. Player attempts spectacular, fails, is abused. Player low on confidence doesn’t try the spectacular… gets abuse.
The kid’s confidence was visibly shattered after scoring an own goal on Monday, and he did go in to hiding a bit the 2nd half. After scoring the own goal though he did do that nice pirouette, come forward, attempt to play the one-two with Dirk and when Kuyt, not Lucas, fucked up there were groans and that was it for the night. A nice positive sign that he’d accepted that he needed to do something because of his fault in the goal, he took charge of the game and then bang, back into the shell he disappears. Alonso would never have done that. Alonso would never have scored the own goal, he was too good for such things. Hell, Alonso wouldn’t have conceded the free-kick, ‘cos there’s no way he’d have even been mobile enough to get back to put in a challenge in the first place.
Ahh fuck it. Go fuck yourselves haters. Watch as he rebuilds his career at a Fiorentina or a Sevilla before at 27 or 28 a big team goes back in for him when he’s finally been allowed the opportunity to mature and grow as a player. Couldn’t allow him that at Liverpool, I mean Alonso was boss at 22 so Lucas should be as well. That’s how it works. Well, not quite actually as Lucas should have been boss at 20. Especially when he had the audacity to show up with that haircut. He was Brazilian player of the year for fuck sakes, I mean he should automatically be one of the best players in the world. Fuck adaptation or gradual development. It’d never be allowed elsewhere, would it?
Oh well, at least Rafa has seemingly unshakable faith in him, so there must be something there. Say what you want about some of his buys, and there have been some horrendous shite in there – they’re never at the club for long though. Lucas wouldn’t be getting a 3rd season if there wasn’t a very good player in there. It’s debatable whether he’d have even got the 2nd. Who knows, maybe he can have a good game on Saturday and then the other side of the tedious debate will get a chance to be ‘it’.
