NAMING RIGHTS THREAD: Liverpool really won't win the Premiership 2010-2011

Spurs top five went Jenas, Gallas, Palacios, Modric, THudd - bottom five Bale, Crouch, BAE, Pav, and Kaboul.

well that's me decided on pass completion eh

One in ten five yards sideways passes goes to opposition

Dyou know thats about fuckin right hey

Wish they could factor in a rough "degree of difficulty" coefficient, then the numbers might mean something.

Difficulty's the wrong word - value, maybe?

degree of 'how does a cunt miss that the cunt' on shots

'that kind of player %' on fouls

'away from the ball' measurement on distance covered for jenas

Are Utd playing Blackpool at Old Trafford this weekend? A shame that Ryan Giggs isn't playing away.

Lucas makes more forward passes than people realise. If a killer ball's on, he'll attempt it, and he'll usually get it spot on. Look at the number of balls he drives into the danger area outside the box, perfect for a flick on round the corner or a one-two. I fucking love Lucas. Should be made captain.

LFC haven't done their player of the year yet have they? Gotta be Lucas surely?

Suarez.

Think Suarez is the best player we have, but that Lucas is P.O.T.Y

kuyt surely a contender too. he is on fire! loads of assists too.

i still have some reservations about lucas, he is far more effective against big teams cos he's just not that creative really. still feels like a player who negates other teams rather than creating a lot.

but i have huge respect for his reaching the level of play he's at having been public enemy number 1 after 08/09.

gerrard

Ian Rush.

in seriousness, every lfc game i've seen it's mereilles, dude's great

Kinda feel like lucas is overrated by hardcore lfc fans as a type of defiance challop

Sorry guys just sayin

Between Lucas and Felipe Melo it's been a good season for recently reviled Brazilian holding mids. Some would say Anderson as well I guess, not sure myself.

Had forgotten Mereiles, surely he's up there?

he's been great but i think lucas or kuyt has to be the winner.

i agree darragh. i also think relative to how he was and in a team that's been underperforming he's managed to look great, he's got a great attitude. we could have somebody better (don't say who cos i don't actually know) but i mean we can't be saying he is world class or the best possible player in that position. he's far from that with respect to the guy.

that said lucas was also never as bad, imo, as he was painted when the revulsion was at its worst.

Been a good year for sandro, tho tbf we never really hated him harry just gave him a slow start

he gave away that peno against wigan which made him a pantomime villain. also rafa left alonso out a few times in that stubborn prick way to play lucas, in some of the endless number games we drew at home. he still does give away stupid free kicks too.

Yeah Sandro has never been reviled. We never really revile defensive midfielders, even Zokora didn't get treated that badly. Think Spurs fans are just happy to have a DM, any DM, even when he's shit.

Wenger, meanwhile, has told Cesc Fábregas that Arsenal's trophy-free season does not offer him the excuse to leave for Barcelona, the midfielder's former club and perennial suitors. "What guarantees you that if you go somewhere else, you win trophies?" Wenger said. "I believe that the biggest pride for a captain is to be committed to his club and deliver trophies with his team.

"A player who changes clubs every time when he is frustrated or when he does not win a trophy goes nowhere. I believe that the quality of a sports life is to be committed to your club and not just move out when it doesn't go as well as expected.

"I expect Cesc to be here. We will fight very hard to keep him here. You have always to fight when you have a player of that quality. You have always to fight to keep the players, of course."

so cesc gone then...

"what guarantees you that if you go somewhere else you win trophies?"

well not guarantees...but how about it being a club that has won something in the last 5 years, where the manager wants to win things, and does everything possible to win things, and buys the players needed to win things, and is constantly winning things because that club is a winning club.

don't think you can fault harry for slowly bringing sandro in, considering he had some poor games at first. i think he did it perfectly.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/may/20/twitter-sued-by-footballer-over-privacy

this is hilarious btw...this MYSTERY FOOTBALLER fighting to ensure the one deaf and dumb man who lives in a martian cave doesn't find out he's a "love rat"

Kuyt was piss poor 1st half of the season. Good 2nd half though. Lucas has been at least 7/10 every single game.

Lucas hasn't really needed to be creative this season. His main role has been DM, and he's performed that roll to perfection. If you do want to look at creativity, Masch made 5 assists for Liverpool, Lucas has, so far, made 13. Make of that what you will. The 'problem' with Alonso (the passer) and Mascherano (the destroyer) was that they were very much specialists. Lucas = Alonso + Mascherano. The issue last season wasn't that we lost Alonso, it was that Carragher, Masch, Gerrard et al didn't trust Lucas, and ignored him and didn't pass the ball to him. Thankfully, they now see him for the quality, pass and move player he is.

His anticipation and reading of the game is class. There was a moment in the West Brom game where Scharner received the ball near the centre circle. He looks towards Odemwingie who is just outside the penalty area, at which point Lucas, who is about 20 yards outside the area, sees Scharner looking in the direction he’s going to pass the ball. Lucas immediately begins to run into that space before Scharner has even kicked the ball. Scharner passes into the space that Lucas has now entered, and intercepts the ball. Broken down like that it sounds pretty straight forward, but the speed at which he read Scharner’s body language, reacted, anticipated where the ball was going and intercepted the pass was remarkable. That's just one example though. There's nothing more beautiful than a Lucas interception.

Then there's his pace, mobility, tackling technique (hardly ever goes to ground, usually stays on his feet), his passing technique (check out how he connects with the ball when he makes those cross field passes), he's also incredible in the air (look at the number of headers he wins which are also attempted passes - gorgeous), and his attitude. No wonder the Academy kids are saying he's their favourite player and the one they look up to. He's the type of player we should be building the team around. Great to hear Kenny bigging him up and telling the fans it'd be nice if we had a song for him. Oh, and giving him a new contract was pretty sweet'n'all. And he's only 24.

lucas is only a little bit like both alonso and masch, he has neither the amazing tackling of masch nor the visionary passing of xabi.

plus WHERE ARE THE GOALS, he's headed more chances straight at the keeper than.....many other players.

don't get me wrong i think he's good, i want him at the club but we can and probably will find someone even better.

chris ♥s lucas

How many goals did Masch score?

Lucas and visionary passing don't get on. Just ask Dani Alves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZP4yeJXpsE

Lucas = Alonso + Mascherano

Wait you're saying he's the sum of two of the greatest players in the world in their position?

Do goals really matter? How many goals did Makelele score?

yeah fuck all as well. masch had his problems too. masch and lucas was a disaster because neither of them can create anything. lucas prob not as wasteful as masch but he just doesn't dictate tempo as alonso did, he doesn't get us going imo, not all the time anyway.

x-post goals do matter if you're not makelele or mascherano, and he isn't.

my fuck all was masch's goal tally, x-post to chris

not criticising harry at all re sandro, agree that it's been well handled

Matt also otm re spurs and dm, i mean we're still kinda happy to have palacios and he's been muck all year

Wait you're saying he's the sum of two of the greatest players in the world in their position?

Sorry, I mean in the context of this Liverpool team. He's not an out and out destroyer, nor is he a passer like Alonso (although he does have a sexy pass in his locker). He has qualities that both of those possess.

basically we still need someone to replace alonso

And yes, I totally ♥ Lucas.

michael otm...if lucas was that good he wouldn't have been part of so many abject performances. to me he's part of the rafa era where we were all about negating teams not going out and beating them, and that weakness against teams lower down the league or teams we should be beating still pervades.

first line sounds a bit harsh, i just mean he has to take blame along with the rest of them for liverpool being way off the pace this year, even if the season has ended well.

Surely if you had a midfield of Lucas + Gerrard + a creative playmaker you'd be fine? It's the two DMs thing that's scuppered you and Lucas's rep.

well we sort of do have that with meireles...

Gerrard's return is gonna ruin everything isn't it?

I think these days I would put Gerrard over on the right in place of Kuyt. Never going to happen, but this would be nice:

-----------Carrol
-------Suarez
Young--Lucas--Meireles--Gerrard
Enrique--Agger--Skrtl--Johnson
------Reina.

just read a Freidel to Tottenham rumor

oof no thanks

Too temp a measure

Judging solely from MOTD highlights think Friedel has dropped off significantly this season. Villa fans will know more tho.

he's turned 40 and declared bankruptcy this yeartoo

tim howard would be good

Paul robinson always struck me as a player could do well at a big no cant even finish

bankruptcy? Srsly?