I get sick of utd fans telling me how Anderson is a better player than Lucas. Lucas starts most games for Brazil, Anderson can't get in their squad. I think we paid around £5 mil for Lucas, anyone know what they paid for Anderson? I think the fact that the Brazilian manager picks Lucas says a lot about the lad, and I admit I wasn't his biggest fan, if he continues improving the way he has this season he's going to be a massive player for us in the future. Thoughts?
Lucas is better and has more to his game right now Any honest fan will admit Lucas isn't poor. Anderson has potential to be as good, but it hasn't clicked for him thus far. Both of them have taken a while to get going though... Lucas is no world beater - but he gets on with it and does what's expected of him... Lucas plays better for Brazil than Liverpool though - with much more freedom.
I'm sure even the Utd fans will agree that Lucas over the last year has been different class to Anderson. However, Anderson never gets a game at Utd so that's why he is completely out the Brazil picture (as well as being not good enough).
Thanks Four2three1, it's good to see an honest reply. I'm not trying to wind you lot up, just interested in your thoughts. By the way, someone on the Liverpool board thinks you paid £20.4 mil for Anderson. Is that correct?
It's all because when Lucas first joined Liverpool, he was a bit shocking. He has actually evolved into a pretty decent little midfielder.
I think Lucas is better than most people give him credit for but they are both completely different players. Lucas seems to be more of a holding midfielder whereas Anderson is the more all action midfielder. You compare them on their national selection but it's not as if Brazil are short of players who can play in a similar role to Anderson whereas the Lucas type players are a (relative) rare commodity and are employed more during the rein of Dunga and the new manager (don't know his name, sorry) where players like Lucas and Sandro are desired. Watching Anderson when he actually gets a decent run in the first team and allowed to play with a bit of freedom and his talent and potenial is easy to see. No other central midfielder that we have likes to get on the ball and turn towards the opposition. His final ball has generally been very good this season as well and has looked to get forward more. Granted two goals were against a Schalke team that were pretty poor but he still showed the common sense to apply the killer touch. There are plenty of aspects of his game that needs improving, his shooting for a start. But for raw ingredient and talent, probably only Rooney or Berbatov compare in the United squad. And hopefully next season with an injury free pre-season and no Copa Libatadores to worry about, Anderson can truly flourish.
From a neutral observer, Lucas is much better atm, he is very solid in his performances, has hardly put a foot wrong this season to my knowledge. Anderson is alright, but is nowhere near as reliable as Lucas is.
Lucas plays more so its not fair to compare. Lucas is a key player in the Liverpool squad where as Anderson is just a member of the squad. Lucas is better now but when each is at his best I feel andersons the better of the two.
I think Anderson is the more talented out of the two. He definitely has more potential that Lucas, but Lucas is certainly playing better at the moment.
Could be the first time I agree with Kamran! Anderson is a better all round player imo, but has struggled to adapt his game to United's 442 formation. Lucas is a more limited player, but is thriving cos Liverpool's formation allows him to play a very specific defensive midfield role. He generally just sits in from of the defence, wins the ball from the opposition, and then gives a short pass to someone like Gerrard or Meireles who starts the attack. He rarely attacks himself, and I know many Liverpool fans who think Lucas' performances get better the less he attacks, and even say he shouldn't even go into the opposition's half. It'll be interesting to see how well he copes next year if Liverpool actually buy wingers and move to a genuine 442 rather than the narrower formation they often used this season. Anderson in contrast both defends and attacks and so has a much more complete role to play. Unfortunately, what with his injuries (I think he has has at least one serious injury every season since joining us) he has struggled to adapt to playing such a demanding role. But when he plays well, like he did against Everton and Schalke, he has a real influence on the game and shows he's capable of playing at the very top level. Of the two, I think Anderson still has bags of potential to improve, but it's hard to see what Lucas can do from here to drastically improve his game, other than work on his tackling. Re: the Brazil squad, the same applies. Lucas is playing in the volante role, and all Brazilian sides tend to have at least one of those. He doesn't face the same level of competition for his place as Anderson, who plays in the meia role and thus has to compete with Elano, Diego and Ramires. Lucas won his place by displacing Kleberson, so I think that shows the respective levels of competition for the two roles! It's similar to why Heskey has more caps than Beardsley and almost as many as Shearer, and Gareth Barry still gets picked for England..
I agree with you swarbs, I think Anderson has huge potential, but will SAF allow him to realise it? As for Lucas, as I said in the OP, I'm not his biggest fan, but he has won me over with his performances this year, though it is difficult to see how he can improve much further.
If Lucas continues to improve he will be a great player for us, I don't think there is a comparison to be made with Anderson who I beleive is a box to box midfielder with his main talent being in the attacking part of his game (maybe wrong there Utd fans feel free to correct me). As SWARBS says Lucas plays a specific defensive role and is a very diffrent player. The main improvement with Lucas is his passing, again SWARBS says he plays it short, this is not the case he has started to become a very effective passer of the ball picking out longer passes to start attacks.
^^ What he said. I don't think utd fans tho can say all he does is sit in front of the defence as its handy for him as Rafa had played him there and give him that specific job. Back in Brazil tho, he was captain of Gremio at 19 and brazils young players of the year due to his attacking midfielder role, so who knows, in England if he plays in that role, he may improve his rep as a good player even further.
It's only because of the price tag that Anderson is being criticised for. If he had been signed for £5m like Lucas had then it wouldn't be that big a deal. Lucas to me is a very ordinary player. He wouldn't get into the United side and I don't think he would be good enough for any other Top 4 side. Anderson on the other hand is brilliant on his day but his day is very rarely. Right now I wouldn't swap them but for the fees paid Liverpool got the better deal.
Just to add to this, when we signed Lucas his position with Gremio (sp?) was an attacking box to box midfielder. It was Rafa who retrained him as a DMC, Rafa seemed to do this a lot, buy a player and then try and retrain them in a different role, Kuyt now plays right wing to a decent level. He tried the same with Cisse, Diouf (I'm not 100% on that one) and Babel (on the left) but it didn't work on those occasions.
I know you wouldn't swap them but I think that Lucas would do a good job in front of your or any other back four. I think he would get into all of the top fours starting 11.
