What player is happy about missing games...? He'd be competing, not rotating. Or, in other words, he'd have to earn his place (as would his rival) in the team like all players should. Its the 'improve the first team the the squad takes care of itself' approach. I agree with preferring a Mascherano type DM though
But you then get to a point where you have an experienced player who expects to play week in week out sitting on the bench. Lucas is on decent wages as well and this club cannot afford to have a Chelsea esque squad. I do agree that you should buy first team players, and the players they replace then become squad players. It's what annoys me about the summer's activity - Lallana, Lovren and Mario were the 'first team' players. None are better than what we currently had already.
I'd rather we get 60billion and go buy matic offering him 500k per week to **** on mourinho's desk while he leaves.. but then thats just me isn't it.
And my response to that would be; I don't give a ****! No player should expect to play every game, they must earn the right to play. I doubt Lucas is on more than £80k per week.
I agree with you - it;s more the case of having an expensive player sitting on the bench. £80k is quite a lot. And Lucas will end up on the bench once we get a semi decent DM in his place
If he ended up on the bench then we'd have to look at the situation. right now, he's the first team option so anyone coming in would have to gain his place first.
We should def keep Lucas until summer, I think the new set-up has helped bring the best out of him. He looked evil last night in a couple of challenges, teaming up with Marko, Hendo and Can. In summer we should be looking to bring in the quality DM/CM we can all see we need and perhaps keep Lucas as competition depending on what offers are on the table vis a vis players in / Lucas out. But then if we bring in a new DM/CM we already have Can who we bought to play in that role so would we want three for the position?? Can is doing amazingly well at the back. I think he could continue to play there and start trying to come further forward looking to take the ball away, tackle, intercept and play it out when we're in position. But then maybe this would mean he'd get out of position. Basically I think Can is going to be a top top player and will boss wherever he plays. Really like this guy. #mancrush #kidding
That's where opinion just differs though, I think Lucas is an excellent DM and we'll find it hard to replace him or to find competition for him as it's a specialist position and there are not many who are exceptional at it.
I think this is a good example of how I feel, a list of the top 10 DM's in the world. Lahm & Shweinsteiger are in there and quite high but not DM's the fella from City isn't all that imo but he is at 10. The rest no doubt are good but are we really going to fork out the money needed to buy one of them? I hope not.
His passing was excellent last night and he's really showing people that this sideways label is nonsense.
I think his passing has always been very good. I think he was unfairly criticised based on us being spoilt with Alonso.
Sometimes I don't know whether to laugh or cry on here. It seems that as soon as one player either improves or is dropped then people just move to another target. As for social media in general- there is a positive role for it, but unfortunately it offers a high-profile mouthpiece to people who really don't deserve it and would otherwise be limited to having a rant in the pub. Insulting someone directly who is clearly doing their best, from the relative anonymity of Twatter etc, is cowardly and stupid.
Lucas' primary job is to protect the defense and this he does to a high level of distinction. For a short fella, the amount of headers he wins is ridiculous. He knows how to foul players continuously before being booked. This is a key function of his position so as to stop the oppositions flow. His is to play medium to low risk passes to ensure that his pass completion is high as well as to ensure we recycle efficiently. If we have to replace Lucas i'd rather bring his replacement and let him settle and then bump Lucas of the first team via better performance because if we get a player who plays better than Lucas, then we've got our own Matic
I don't have a problem with Lucas passing sideways - his passing is generally good anyways. All he needs to do is win it quickly and give it to his partner. The problem I have is that his partner (Hendo) needs to do more on the ball to compensate. Between Lucas and Henderson, they spend a lot of time on the ball. Henderson needs to stop treating the ball as a hot potato and passing it backwards, or he looks forward and dwells. Going back to Lucas - in the right system, he's decent. But he's not a top class DM. He wins less than half of his ground duels (around 40%) - this is his career statistic and it's not good for a DM. He's also slow to cover ground and can lose his runner (at times). The biggest issue is that he will fade after 60 mins. And this is when teams will pounce. There was one moment against Villa when the Spanish kid waltzed right past him. It happens pretty much every match. I appreciate there is a difference opinion on Lucas, but personally I do not rate him as highly as others for the reasons above. We were spoilt with the likes of Didi and Mascherano - both were critical in this team which won trophies and achieved consistent CL football.
