207th Merseyside Derby

Third_Echelon

Everton did look a bit off. Defence and midfield was alright. We just couldn't link it up to Yakubu who looked a bit lost on his own up-front and he was starting to get frustrated.

Not having Cahill, Johnson, Anichebe or Vaughan up there with Yak showed how thread-bare our squad is when we get hit with injuries.

When Osman and Arteta got pushed up further in the second half, we started to create more chances, but we didn't put enough pressure on Reina from free-kicks, corners, crosses etc where he is at his weakest.

Liverpool deserved the win overall. They did enough to win it. You only need to give Torres one chance and he will win a game for you.

4th spot is looking more like liverpool's, but we aren't out of it yet. There is still a bit of football to be played with some key fixtures for both teams coming up. It's now liverpool's to lose...

IrishMike

PHB wrote: »

Lucas did show elements of his game that were top class, two passes to Babel I think in the first half spring to mind. He instantly passes the ball because he's Brazilian, it's all about one touch passing. He'll slowly adjust his game, but he seems to be having more difficulty to do it than Anderson, but that's largely imo because Anderson has a strong physical presence which always helps in the premiership. I'd say in 2-3 years the guy will be a very good player.

I honestly wonder sometimes what games you watch PHB:eek:
Lucas is an average player at best so far, he may develop into a good player
but he will never ever be anywhere near a world class central midfielder.
He showed absolutly nothing in the Everton game yet again.
One pass in the first 5 mins when there was no one within 15 yards of him.
Not exactly an earth shattering contribution.
He was at sea for the entire match, his passin was truely awful despite
Liverpool owning the midfield. He really cant tackle and he has no pace.
It doesnt matter what he did at underage, if it did Neil Mellor would be
playing up front because of his amazing underage record.
Because he is Brazilian doesnt mean a damn thing.
Veron was Argentinan and was one of the best midfielders in the world
before he came to the premiership but his passing was too slow and he
didnt have any noticable pace, lucas is the same.
He will get another 18 months, will get a few handy brazil caps and then will
be sold off at a small profit. Yet another player that promised so much but
was a big damn flop.

Melion

Can i have tomorrow nights lotto numbers Mike?

Mr Alan

IrishMike wrote: »

Yet another player that promised so much but
was a big damn flop.

do you give all transfers and young players that amount of time to adjust and get used to a new continent,culture,team etc?

shambolic to be honest. your post that is. not Lucas.

Personally, i've seen enough positives from Lucas' game to think that he could turn into an excellent excellent player.

and lets not forget, if it wasnt for Phil Neville, he'd be the lad that won us in the derby in the last minute at the start of the season

IrishMike

Mr Alan wrote: »

do you give all transfers and young players that amount of time to adjust and get used to a new continent,culture,team etc?

shambolic to be honest. your post that is. not Lucas.

Personally, i've seen enough positives from Lucas' game to think that he could turn into an excellent excellent player.

May i ask what they are?
Everytime i see him (which is a lot before you ask) he is a huge let down.
Passing is poor, takes far too long on the ball, poor workrate, lack of technique and has no pace.
After that unless he starts scoring wonder goals or ups his workrate 500% i dont see what the hell ye base this huge hope on.

Mr Alan

performance when he came on in the derby at the start of the season?
Goal against Havant and Waterlooville?
At LEAST 2 cracking passes at the weekend.
Being thrown into the game at the San Siro, and not looking out of his depth.

PHB

Hey, I'm not arguing that Lucas has been good this season, far from it. I'm surprised he hasn't made more of an impact, but he had too many midfielders ahead of him.
But he has touches of quality, little things, like timing of runs, making space, clever passes, just little things.

p.s. His record isn't proven at underage level, its proven at a Brazilian league level, much much much much much higher standards than the reserve leagues.

dc69

IrishMike wrote: »

May i ask what they are?
Everytime i see him (which is a lot before you ask) he is a huge let down.
Passing is poor, takes far too long on the ball, poor workrate, lack of technique and has no pace.
After that unless he starts scoring wonder goals or ups his workrate 500% i dont see what the hell ye base this huge hope on.

I think your being too harsh,how do you know he wont be the best midfielder in the world?

I thought he was piss poor against everton but he passed 2 long pases to babel and they were pin point.

As someone else said,he plays like a brazilian and passes the ball straight back,he needs someone to tell him to give him encouragement to go foward and seriously think about the amount of time he has on the ball,they should be trying to take him in fabregas style direction.

I read up about his kid the minute we signed him,most people think he is a defensive midfielder.He is an out and out cm midfielder,though can play box to box.He played very similar to gerrard when at gremio.So its not a case of alonso or masch being in his way,its stevie.I will reserve judgement until next year when steveie gets injured for a match and they put Lucas in his place.

PHB

Rafa did that once at the first Everton game, it worked a treat.