He has the quality in the position he plays, but then not all teams in the PL play with such a purely defensive player. SAF has never to my knowledge considered someone who plays in what I would term the Makalele role, i.e. someone who is purely there to break up attacks and get possession back whilst not actively driving forwards and creating with the ball. Likewise with Wenger - both SAF and Wenger seem to prefer players like Keane, Vieira, Carrick, Gilberto, Fletcher and Song, who I would say are all more creative than Lucas, although only Vieira and Keane were as good at tackling and shielding the defence. But then if Utd or Arsenal were managed by someone else, particularly someone like Mourinho or Benitez who seem to love those kind of holding players, then Lucas would probably be first choice. I reckon he would get into City's side tho' - Mancini wouldn't be able to resist a player who makes over a hundred tackles per season
Glad it was nothing to do with your knob, or as Rusholme would type, nob. Cant't have any competition for The Hammerhead on here.
I know it is Youtube, but if you watch his highlights from his Gremio days to now, it is no wonder it took him so long to adjust to the English game. He was learning a completely new position, he was a very good AM too.
Lucas = the most under rated player in the prem class act and Swarbs he'd walk into the manure midfield ahead of Anderson, Carrick, Fletcher, Cleverley etc whether or not MAF plays a "defensive" midfielder...as Shirley Crabtree would say...easy easy easy
This goal never loses it's magic [video=youtube;1uWkAvC2zIQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uWkAvC2zIQ[/video] Also - Listen to the commentary at the end...
He's decent going forwards, but seems to lack the positional awareness to play a more attacking or all round box to box role in the PL. I think that's why he struggled so much in his early years at Liverpool - he couldn't adapt from the Brazilian two DMs / two AMs approach to the English all round CM approach. Given Benitez' preference for a tight defensive set up, he had to become a DM in order to succeed. That's not a bad thing - Makelele played pretty much the same role as Lucas does right now, and he was one of the best players of all time imo. So was Anderson before he came to England (as was Kleberson for that matter). The Brazilian CAM role doesn't seem to translate well to the EPL, probably due to the emphasis on pace and power above passing and control.
He was actually a box to box player in Brazil, so he was pretty rare in that respects, what happened though was he was only getting so much results in Brazil because he could out muscle opponents with his frame, much like Gerrard does in this league to most players. When he moved to this league, he couldn't use that physicality anymore, so Rafa choose to mould him into a defensive midfielder, because he was never going to cut it as a box to box midfielder in this league. This isn't anything to do with my original argument though, my thoughts are that he's equally as good as Carrick, if not better, at going forward. Some of the passes Lucas plays forward are ones Carrick would be lauded for. If I was choosing a team, and age didn't factor into my choices, I would choose Lucas ahead of Carrick everytime, he's MUCH better defensively, and he's better going forward!!
I disagree - you have just given examples of fantastic defensive midfielders whose job is to break up attacks and keep possession. Players like Vieira and Keane were special because they added more skill to that position. Ultimately, they were there in the team for their ability to win back the ball.
