Not the most grabbing of titles I grant you, but the title fits the subject matter quite well. Humble, understated and often in the background of more illuminating topics of debate. I know there are countless Lucas threads, indeed I have posted in many of them but I feel his story needs its own place, with as much as possible about his emergence in one place. I hope it will serve as an article rather than a place for any cheap swipes and fans can look back at the importance of being patient and not to be too hasty when judging developing players as we seem to be heading in this direction with NESV’s policy on young talents.
"We need 'top four' young players," Henry said. "They will not produce a quick fix but our philosophy in football will be based on the long-term.
"That is what has made Arsenal and Manchester United so strong. They understand something we understand in Boston - to be consistently strong on the field you must have a consistent flow of young talent that has been nurtured and developed the right way.
"We will focus on that. That is also the philosophy of Damien Comolli."
- John W. Henry
To start the Lucas Leiva story, we must go back to the wake of the 06/07 season. After the heroics of 2005 and a scintillating FA Cup Final, and an undeserved loss in the 2007 Champions League Final Rafa's stock was never higher and with the entire fanbase behind him, felt confident enough to make a few caustic statements at the then chairmen and CEO.
Asked if he was frustrated and angry he replied ‘Yes, both of those things.’
He then went on to say, ‘I don't want more money than anyone else, I'm not saying I need £40million to spend on top strikers,' Benitez explained. 'But if we have money I need to use it, and the key is to use it quickly. We need to move quicker than Chelsea and Manchester United, and this is a crucial time. It is not always a question of the amount you pay, but how quickly you move. I have targets in mind and if we cannot make a major signing in the next week I will be disappointed. If we miss out now, it might be a struggle to make the top four again next season.'
In the aftermath of these comments things looked to be happening. The fanbase were pretty much united in thinking we had a pretty strong core in Reina, central defence and our midfield was celebrated with ‘the best midfield in the world song’. What we lacked and had failed to address for some time was a prolific front man and quality wide players. With the acquisition of Torres, excitement started to bubble (although there were some quizzical eyebrows about whether Torres could be that prolific player we really needed, which thankfully he put to bed early on). We still had the services of Mascherano anyway and most eyes watched keenly for the next exciting players to arrive. Unfortunately the calibre of signings we ended up with were Benayoun and Pennant, hardly ones to set the pulses racing. Although they were decent enough there were doubts whether these were the type of players that could seriously kick us on and have an instant positive impact. The total outlayed on these players was £11.7 million. Our other heavy investment was made on two young players for £17.5 million in Ryan Babel and Lucas Leiva.
After an impressive outing in youth competitions Babel looked like he could become the left sided forward player we so desperately craved and was taken to by the fans before kicking a ball. The plateau he was put on whipped up a frenzy of excitement about the young starlet we could see gracing Anfield and we crowed about how we had beaten off other clubs for his signature. In contrast Lucas was greeted with muted contempt and a pre-emptive attitude of there being no place to accommodate him. Quotes like the following were common (lifted from his signing thread, they will remain anonymous as there were countless others I could have picked):
Lucky we signed him, our stock levels of world clash young midfielders is starting to diminish.
Sorry did you say defensive midfielder? Seriously? Do we need another one? Let's be honest - is Rafa's ultimate aim to field a team of defensive midfielders? If this is true then he must be expecting Masch to leave at the end of his loan, or that Xabi or Sissoko are leaving, because how you can accomodate 4 defensive midfielders at one club, is beyond me.
Why waste £4 million+ on "potential" when we have four excellent central midfielders in Mascherano, Sissoko, Alonso and Gerrard? They are all young guys. Alonso, Sissoko and Gerrard have proven their worth to us - we know they're good enough. Mascherano hasn't been here that long but already we've seen glimpses of the side we can become with him in the squad. And this was before we had signed the kid. Then when we did sign him, the remarks turned to petty slights at his hair and features. He was labelled a defensive midfielder and pigeon holed quite early on. All this comes together to set the scene for at least a part of the fanbase who already had prejudices before he had kicked a ball for us.
If we had stepped back from the immediate situation and appraised it reasonably, maybe he would have been greeted differently but at the time he was (supposedly) an unwanted gamble when we needed to strengthen key areas of the team. He bore the brunt of a split investment strategy and also the fact his arrival could signal the departure of Alonso to Barcelona, Sissoko to Barcelona or the Mascherano renewal falling through (all speculated at the time). All three were very popular players and either of these outcomes was unpalatable for the fans who believed it would be a step back from the precipice of a period of sustained greatness.
However, it was clear to many that Mascherano was a superior player to Momo in that role, and his absence (Momo’s) in the Champions League Final 2007 squad spoke volumes, as did Rafa’s tinkering of his position towards the end of the 06/07 season, leading him to make the following statement:
"But it was my decision, and some people may say I made a mistake, but I was sure we could have a good game with this system, or at least I was checking if it was a good idea. Now we know more about the players."
Source It was clear a new role was beyond Momo and he was woefully out of his depth, which culminated in a shocking performance against ‘Boro where he couldn’t even seem to stay on his feet without falling over. To put this into context, we must acknowledge that since he sustained his eye injury he was never quite the same player for us anyway.
Steven Gerrard had been given the role behind Torres, as with foresight I believe Rafa identified at the time what came to be common knowledge to the English media a couple of years later, that there had been a natural death of the box to box midfielder as football tactics had evolved to accommodate the holding midfielder or pivot point. So not only did Lucas have to contend with emerging into a midfield comprising Gerrard, Mascherano and Alonso he also has to do this while adapting to the changing demands of continental football at the highest level.
Now at the same time, it is important to look at a parallel situation that was developing at Chelsea. They had spent £12 million after a dispute with Manchester United a season earlier on John Obi Mikel and United had responded by shelling out an enormous fee on another highly rated young player in Anderson. Now the similarity in Mikel and Lucas’s fortunes are eerily similar.
Mikel started his season in 06/07 and almost scored a goal early on, and the rebound was tucked in neatly by Drogba. Shades of Lucas almost scoring the winner in the derby, which had to be despatched by Kuyt which turned out to be the winning goal.
From then on Mikel had mixed fortunes with fouls, discipline and adapting to the holding position where Mourinho had chosen to use him. Lucas after a couple of promising introductions gave away a few silly fouls that led to goals his name became synonymous with ‘Jonah’.
Entering the 08/09 season Mikel had much more experience under his belt than Lucas and Makelele had left Chelsea for pastures new. He was thrown into the deep end with the injury situation to Essien. After coming under scrutiny and criticism from the Chelsea fans and question marks being raised over his transfer in the first place he performed tidily and adequately winning over many skeptics.
It’s also important to note at this point that Lucas had been the consummate professional at Liverpool, head down and working hard whilst Mikel had suffered from off the field problems and question marks over his personal lifestyle. It’s believed the club did think of offloading him after 06/07, but he came back all the stronger for it.
During the 08/09 campaign everyone was looking for Lucas to really develop, and kick on and have a major impact in the first team. He hit a ceiling in his development as first team chances were rare and depended on injury; not to mention that the team was doing spectacularly well and any changes made fans paranoid that the winning momentum would be lost. His time at Liverpool was interrupted by a visit to the Olympics and when he came back, he struggled to acclimatise to the premier league again which led to not bad performances per se, but ones that stood out in a team that was playing extremely well. It culminated in him being booed from the pitch when being substituted against Fulham. Lucas was apologetic while the manager was bullish in his defence:
"I am trying to get some more minutes on the pitch, but it is difficult," he told BBC Radio Merseyside.
"I am always speaking to the manager. He says I'm young, but that I'm much better than last season."
He added: "Players such as Javier Mascherano, Xabi Alonso and Steven Gerrard are all ahead of me."
'People just don't know how good Lucas is. He is a fantastic player, he was captain of his club side at 19 and has already won full caps with Brazil.
'Not just any country, but Brazil. He has captained their Under-21s and their Olympic team.
'He has a very good mentality. When you talk of Brazilian players you know they are skilful with ability. But Lucas is a worker and has a very good approach.
'He can tackle, he can pass the ball and he can win in the air. He is still a very young player learning to live in a different country.
"He is competing against Mascherano, the captain of Argentina, one of the best players in the world in Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso, a champion of Europe.
"I think it is difficult for a young player to compete with them, but that shows the quality in our midfield."
At this point Rafa refused to wrap him up in cotton wool and Lucas refused to hide. He ended the season in decent form being part of the team that thrashed United 4-1 at Old Trafford and also a goal scorer in the memorable match against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge that ended up 4-4 (7-5 agg). Statistics comparing the relative success of the midfield pairings were in fact actually quite negligible in their difrference:
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