Mr Leiva will be sitting in the stands this weekend. And we'll miss him. Kenny made a good point about how far he'd travelled during international week and perhaps he had a lot taken out of the tank so the utd game was the only one we didn't see him maintain the form that won him the playe rof the year award last season. I for one wan to point out a few things we'll miss. 1. work rate off the ball. we should all by now have seen adam ball watching while lucas covers both him and the back 4. Lucas' work rate is top drawer. Carragher will miss him badly. 2. Tackle rate, while lucas works hard to cover runs and close the gaps he's also our top tackle maker and ball winner. We'll miss that on saturday. 3. availability for a pass. We've all watched gerrard and adam and know they want to go forward, well someone has to drop off and be available so carragher doesn't donkey it like he wants to. We'll miss that first option for a pass for the back 4 bing lucas.
With all due respect to Norwich this was the best possible time for him to miss out, with Everton and Manchester United in our last two games and Chelsea and Manchester City ahead we need this lad in shape, he deserves the rest and it'll be interesting to see how we'll cope without him.
just over a year ago this thread would have been seen as the ultimate in wumming - how things have changed and all credit to lucas
Yes we are going to miss him today,there will be a few people that will realise how important Lucas is to our team
hopefully spearing can step up. Thank god we don't have poulson anymore as this would be the perfect game for him to have a mare
I think Henerson will slot in the middle, he plays far better down the centre as to when he's out wide. Although Spearing would be the perfect replacement because he can tackle unlike Hendo, then again Gerrard is back.
Couldn't have come at a better time. If we can't beat Norwich without him then we know something is wrong. Nice time for him to have a rest and get ready for the big games coming up. I'd play Gerrard, Adam & Henderson in the middle, Downing & Bellamy on the wings with Suarez front on his own. Plenty of pace, energy and creativity.
I guess as Carroll didn't play against United it seems like he will probably get a game today. I hope Bellamy gets a good run out though, maybe in place of Downing as he's has looked lively in the few appearences he's made this season.
It would be a good move, Downing has been playing below the standards he showed in the first few games. Since he put in a good performance for England he hasn't really done much in a Liverpool shirt.
like mentioned Bellamy instead of Downing Spearing would be good for this game We shall find out in 2 1/2 hours
Jeff Stelling mentioned a statistic about Liverpool conceding the least amount of shots in the league which shows the importance of Lucas. However, it's slightly concerning that although we're not letting the opposition having too many chances, we'll still conceding quite a few goals.
