I have some quick comments because I deserve some time to voice my opinion after reading through 9 pages of that bullshit.
Lucas isn't the best player in the world. Lucas is not the worst player in the world. Lucas as of right now, has been our most consistent and best option as a deep defensive CM. These are facts. He is not the best offensive CM on the team, but he's more than capable and I would say he is much more so than Masch.
On that note, I wish people would stop comparing all of our past players. That's fine if you want to compare him to three of our best CMs in LFC history, but it's a bad argument. Just because your entire team isn't the best FILL IN THE POSITION in the world, doesn't mean that they are not fucking useful if not integral. We could have a team made up of the best players in the world in every position, but without chemistry and tactics, it's meaningless. Comparing Lucas to our two past CMs who were in their prime, were different players (more specialists than Lucas' role), and were surrounded by better players is utter shit.
I saw some of you bust out the "but he isn't able to pick the team up and get wins for us" argument. Yeah. You're right. Neither did anyone else on the team. Did you see our record pre-Kenny?! The fact of the matter is that the times of old where few players can carry a team to a cup are over. You need a team of players who can and will work together and are willing to work themselves to the bone for the benefit of the other teammates. This is what Lucas does. He will NEVER get a lot of credit for it, but he works damn hard to make his team look good and play better.
I want to point the attention to Busquets for a moment. Great player, great movement, great defending. But I would reckon he would look a lot worse if he wasn't surrounded by the current Barca-fucking-lona who is possibly one of the greatest teams of all time. Lucas for Liverpool and Lucas for Brazil is night and day. Those who claim that him being on the Brazilian team have obviously not seen the games that he has been playing. He is one of the best players on the pitch EVERY GAME and is clearly the heart beat of the team. He's brilliant. But he's the same player that he is for us. He's not particularly fast, he's not a world beater offensively, he's not the best tackler in the world (although I would argue that he is GREATLY underrated as a defender), and he's not launching balls from half into the net. But he is incredible to watch. And as Liverpool has begun moving towards pass and move tactics, and we have begun moving towards what is now identified as a modern Brazilian play style, I have seen moments in which Lucas has began showing what he has been showing for the national team for a few years now.
Again, he's not particularly great at anything, but his work rate and smarts minimize any disadvantages that would bring and he ups the play of his teammates. He fills a role in that sense that is similar to Busquets. Busquets is a great player and I think a better player than Lucas right now, but he's not the best on the team at anything. But it's important to note that he is one of the most important parts of the team. And it's important to note how rare that necessary ability and selflessness is in the modern player and how hard to replace he is. And it's important to note who his back-up is. A player with more obvious strengths, but isn't as effective as a part of the team.
For those who think Lucas is "not good enough for LFC" (which I guess means that LFC has for the last 118 years been stocked to the brim with world class players and only world class players), I say yes. Yes, he is not good enough for your idealized LFC where every player is here for life and everyone is crawling to get here through broken glass. But that's not reality. Reality is that we're not that club anymore. The reality is that the game doesn't work like that anymore. Lucas is what is now. A player who is here. A player who is happy to be here. A player that makes others happy to be here. A player that should be applauded for not only wearing the red shirt, but for wearing it with pride and for working as hard as he can for as long as he wears it. If you want to get rid of him, I'm fine with that. But you better have a player with more promise and is as hard working as Lucas, and good fucking luck with that.
My last part of this tirade is at one point one of the detractors used Lucas being booed as evidence that he wasn't good enough. That made me sick. Hearing that booing during one of the games last season was the point that I felt most sick being a fan of our club. I would NEVER boo a player on our team as long as he was giving it his all. NEVER. That is DESPICABLE. Fuck those "fans" that did so. Go with Fernando and join the glory chasers at Chelsea if you want to be the type of fan that boos one of your own players. Shame on those "fans". They should be fucking disgraced at their behavior, not made an example of. Completely classless.
That's it. Thank you for reading all of this if you did.
