Liverpool: A Different Kind of Brilliance

There is something reassuringly familiar about Lucas Leiva, a style of play that recalls happier days for Liverpool.  Get the ball, pass it on to the nearest red shirt and then move on in readiness to get it back: that used to be the Liverpool way and that is how Leiva plays his football.

In a way, this explains why so little has been said about him.  Lucas blends into the side seemingly doing nothing special, certainly not anything that gets him easily noticed.  Look closer, however, and the understated importance of his play will become obvious.

Take his passing.  Unlike others he is not one for the long cross-field pass but often tends to look around him for players who are in space. It could be construed as lack of ambition or talent but in truth it is simply another way to keep the move going.   Especially because of what Lucas often does after each pass: move forward and get ready to receive the ball again.

In other words, he always makes sure that there are options and outlets for those around him to allow Liverpool to move the ball forward and past any pressure that there might be on the midfielders.   Far from being a risk free approach, Lucas is in more danger of looking inept if possession is lost than it is if a longer range pass goes slightly wayward.  Yet it offers a different dimension to Liverpool’s play.  Too many teams have latched on to the fact that Xabi Alonso will cut you in half if you give him space on the ball.  Press him, however, and his effectiveness is greatly reduced.

Of course the thing with Alonso is that he is far too intelligent to be easily cornered but the availability of a player like Lucas ensures that there are different alternatives available for Liverpool.

This wasn’t always apparent this season but there were enough instances to indicate that it is what Benitez is thinking of.  Especially towards the latter part of the season when Lucas started being given more opportunities – possibly because it was felt that the player had really started to settle in – and as a result he began to really show what he’s all about.

It was then that more started to emerge about his game.  His reactivity, for instance, and how he immediately starts pressing whenever the ball is lost.  Or his defence splitting passes such as the one that put Pennant through on goal against Fulham.  Such instances hint at how much more could come from him.

Not that this should have been in any doubt.  This was a player who had been a regular for one of Brazil’s biggest sides since he was eighteen, a side he had captained as well as playing a major role in its progress to the final of the Copa Libertadores.  And this is a player who is a regular member of Brazil’s squad, someone who is rated very highly by coach Carlos Dunga.

Perhaps it is because he has already achieved so much that such high expectations are place on him.  Not even that, however, justifies the claims that his has been a disappointing season.  He might need to improve in certain areas – which player his age doesn’t? -but he that doesn’t diminish the fact that he is an exceptional talent.