I agree and his tackling was good when he was with us.
I disagree on the whole settling for poor players Jimmy put out there, you rarely have a team of 11 superstars and functional players who can do a job week after week are the core of any team and imo Lucas comes into that category. Play him in the Mascherano role and put a more talented player like Can next to him and they'll both do a great job.
I agree that you can't have a 11 superstars - successful teams have a number of functional players. Lucas is functional - but that's not to say he's a very good functional player. He's average.
Mascherano and Scott Parker are both functional players who play the same position - but one is clearly better than the other.
mancini did this and it worked for him (sort of)