Lucas Leiva’s stuttering return to form for Liverpool has earned him a call-up to the Brazil national team, as Luiz Felipe Scolari announced a somewhat experimental squad for the friendlies against South Korea and Zambia.
Lucas’ last international call up was towards the end of 2011, as a series of injuries have kept him out of the international picture since then.
His return to full fitness has taken longer than many thought, but the serious nature of the cruciate ligament injury he suffered during a League Cup match against Chelsea meant that a full recovery was always in doubt. Even now many onlookers believe the effects of the injury on his mobility and fitness are still noticeable.
Lucas is a player who has become used to overcoming adversity since his move to Liverpool. The midfielder was once derided by some Liverpool fans, and was even booed by them during a particularly limp performance earlier in his career. However, he proved any doubters wrong as he became a vital part of the Liverpool set-up before the injury set back.
Since his return to action, the Anfield faithful have been praying that Lucas would reach the levels of performance he achieved prior to his knee injury, and he has shown glimpses of his old self as he knits the attack from deep.
His defensive energy is also still evident, but the legs seem to fade midway through the second half of games. Whether this is due to the lingering effects of the injury, or simply down to the fact he’s being overplayed as Liverpool’s only defensive midfielder is up for debate.
There’s also a debate as to whether defensive midfield is his best position, or whether he would be better in a slightly more advanced role in the centre of midfield, similar to the one currently occupied by Steven Gerrard.
There’s no doubt that manager Brendan Rodgers sees Lucas as a vital part of his Liverpool side, and has even described him as “one of the disciples” when referring to Lucas’ role in the system and style he wants Liverpool to play. But the Lucas we saw at Brazilian side Grêmio, who won the Bola de Ouro (a similar award to Footballer of the Year) in 2006, had the freedom to burst forward from midfield, and his four goals in the league that season can testify to this.
Compare this with just one league goal scored in his six seasons at Liverpool.
Despite this apparent ability to play a more box-to-box role, it’s likely that Luiz Felipe Scolari will also use Lucas in a midfield holding position for Brazil. He’ll be alongside a more boisterous invader of an opposition area such as Paulinho or Ramires, or a more elegant attacking conductor like Hernanes or Oscar, or even a nondescript Luiz Gustavo.
A return to the international scene could see Lucas complete his recovery, and if he can impress his manager in the upcoming international friendlies, he might even find himself in the picture for a place in the Brazil side for the World Cup in 2014.
Lucas Leiva talks to Liverpool journalists about his return from injury, his ups and downs at Liverpool FC, his good friend Luis Suarez, tactics and scouting, and where he sees his own and the club's future.
For people with nothing better to do than discuss the
miniscule details of football, the natural position of Lucas Leiva has been a
much covered, and much disputed topic.
His transition from a more attacking player whilst at Gremio, to a
holding role or defensive midfield position at Liverpool, has a lot to do with
differences in style of play and the way positions are assigned in Brazil and
England. The need to pin players down to
a particular description or positional term has created much confusion about
Lucas’s part in a football team, and may have given his managers at Liverpool a
headache or two. Ultimately it is the
manager who decides which position a player is stationed in, and how much
freedom they have to stray from this starting role. Here we will try to define the various roles
Lucas has played, and what might be his best position.
Lucas started his career at Gremio, a club based in Porto
Alegre in southern Brazil, where he began to draw ambitious comparisons with
Brazilian great Falcão. These
comparisons were made because of the style of play, the strengths Lucas showed
on and off the ball, and the positions he took up on the field. In Brazil, the position of players like Lucas
and Falcão before him, is given the name Volante.
Volante
Volante is a general term for a player
taking up a defensive midfield role. The word may have roots in the name of Argentine player Carlos Volante, who was one of the first to play the position during the 1930s. It
literally translates into English as Flywheel – a rotating device used as an
energy store – or steering wheel. These
translations themselves begin to paint a picture of what the player in this
position will provide for a team. They
are very much the fulcrum of attacks and the engine room of defence, and will
use their technical ability to engineer attacks whilst also being able to
garner the energy to break up opposition moves.
It’s often easy to define the position semantically, but then the hard
part is matching the player to the positional description.
Brazilian teams often play with two players in this
position, with one taking up a stricter defensive role who will recycle the
ball quickly when in attack, and another player who has more license to get
forward and less defensive constraints.
This is where the term volante is expanded to include the terms first
and second volante, and where we find the term which best describes Lucas
during his time at Gremio. As a second
volante he has all the drive and defensive traits of a defensive midfielder,
but was also able to use this same determination to compliment his technical
ability going forward, as shown in this slightly dodgy video of him scoring for
Gremio. Here the team is on the attack
and Lucas sees the opportunity to make a late run into the box to get on the
end of a cross, and shows how a well timed run can turn a volante into an
attacking midfielder.
There are many other examples of Lucas playing for Gremio
where he would be described as a playmaker due to his probing passes, a box to
box midfielder with his energy and running, an attacking midfielder getting on
the end of attacking moves, and a defensive midfielder left holding the
fort. At Gremio it’s safe to say that he
was seen as a great all round midfielder and footballer, and these all round
performances saw him win the coveted Bola de Ouro
in 2006; an award previously won by Brazilian luminaries such as Zico, Mauro
Silva, and Falcão.
Transition in Liverpool
The transition from playing in Brazil to being a regular in
the English Premier League is a difficult one, and it was no different for
Lucas. The difference for Lucas was that
he always had the mental attributes to succeed in the league, and these attributes
tended to dictate the positions he was employed in by Rafa Benitez, who signed
him for Liverpool in 2007. Liverpool had
a strong midfield at the time Lucas joined, including the likes of Xabi Alonso,
Javier Mascherano, and Steven Gerrard, with other fringe players such as
Mohamed Sissoko and Damien Plessis also vying for a place in the team. This meant Lucas had to adapt, and maybe take
up a more specialised role to find a way into the side.
Lucas was initially seen as the ideal partner for Mascherano
if Liverpool wished to play a more defensive formation with two more defensive
minded midfielders. This was seen as a
great system for Lucas to play in, as he had alongside him a player who might
be familiar in style from his time in Brazil, with direct comparisons to make
between the first and second volante combination. And there won’t have been many better
volantes to play alongside and learn from than Javier Mascherano.
Similarly, playing and training alongside Steven Gerrard and
Xabi Alonso would have helped to encourage improvement in the attacking and
creative aspects of Lucas’s game. You
could say that Lucas possessed some of the qualities of all three of these
world class players, but this could also have been the reason he struggled to
settle into a rhythm during some of his early seasons at Liverpool. In a league where specialisation and clear
definition in certain positions seems to be demanded by fans and pundits, and
in a team where those ahead of him in the squad were some of the best exponents
of these specialised positions, many began to lose patience and faith in the
midfielder as he tried to find a role in the side. Defensive midfielder, playmaker, or attacking
midfielder? Which one would he chose?
Volante II
After the departures of Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano,
Lucas found himself in the Liverpool first team more often than not. As the seasons progressed the mistakes became
fewer and Lucas’s confidence on the ball increased. In the 2010/11 season Lucas played an
important role in the Liverpool side, often partnering Christian Poulsen, Raul
Meireles, or Steven Gerrard – with Lucas the mainstay of the side as the others
around him struggled for form or fitness.
The position he found himself in was similar to that vacated
by Javier Mascharano, so he had effectively stepped back from the second
volante he was at Gremio, to a more disciplined generic volante. He recycled the ball well between defence and
attack, doing the simple things well and allowing others to express themselves further
up the pitch. Liverpool’s manager Kenny
Dalglish commented that:
“I don’t think Lucas
is going to be the one who beats five or six players and puts it into the back
of the net. But he may be the one who stops the guy going past the first fella
then sets us on our way”
His job in defence was more prominent in that he became an
expert in breaking up opposition play and often stifled some of the more
revered attacking midfielders in the opposing teams. This meant he seemed to pick up a yellow card
in almost every game, but also meant that he was one of the most successful
tacklers in European football. This is
best summed up by Opta
in their tweet:
172 - Lucas Leiva made
more tackles than any other player in the top five leagues in Europe this
season. Cult.
Another successful tackle.
This willingness to defend and play for the team saw Lucas
voted as Liverpool’s fans player of the season for the 2010/11 season, and also
showed how the mentality of a volante he brought with him from Brazil, has
helped him to convince his doubters that he has an important role to play in
the team.
More recently Lucas has seen himself the lynchpin of the
Liverpool midfield, allowing Charlie Adam or Steven Gerrard the freedom to get
forward and spray passes around to the attackers. It’s no surprise that Adam’s performances
have dropped since Lucas has been out of the side with an injury, and
Liverpool’s form in the second half of the 2011/12 season has shown how much
they miss him.
The Future
Second volante / attacking midfielder /
playmaker / defensive midfielder / anchor man / box to box midfielder. Clearer now?
Lucas celebrates with Luis Suarez.
The two players could be key players in Liverpool's future plans.
Lucas has been out with a knee injury since early December,
and will miss the rest of the season.
Lucas Leiva's recent knee injury and resultant absence from the first team has shown how much of a key player he has become for this current Liverpool side. Many fans of the club looked on in worry as the player collided unfortunately with Juan Mata, and after attempting to play on was eventually stretchered from the pitch to a round of boos from the Chelsea fans, and apprehensive looking applause from the travelling Liverpool support.
It's a testament to the player's rise through the ranks at Liverpool that his absence has had such an effect on the team. Whilst many Liverpool fans knew the effect his season ending injury would have on the rest of their season, it might have been more pronounced than they thought, as the team appear to have struggled for any consistency in the midfield positions.
Charlie Adam's form has notably dropped since not having Lucas to partner him in transitional phases where the team attempt to build attacks from the back, and maybe more importantly in situations where the midfield are looking to win the ball back. The Scot has often found himself struggling in some middle ground between a deep lying midfield play maker, and a more attacking midfield role, which ends up with him playing as a half hearted box to box midfielder without the physical attributes to do so. The result of this seems to be the concession of unnecessary free kicks when defending, and less effective probing passes going forward. Here you begin to see where the physical attributes and tackling ability of Lucas have been helping other players do what they do best.
Jay Spearing is the natural replacement in Lucas's position, but his time in the team has been disrupted by the odd knock and an unfortunate suspension. If Lucas can pass on some of the experiences he went through during his struggle to gain a first team role, then the club will have a couple of solid players in this position for years to come.
The lack of consistency in the deeper midfield positions has recently seen Steven Gerrard take up the role, and it's one of many roles he can perform to the highest level. Though it is evident that Gerrard is a top performer in most positions, Liverpool would prefer to use him in a more attacking forward running role to help make the difference in the final third. Again, Lucas' presence in the side would accommodate this possibility.
This transformation - from being a player who many fans thought was just another dud Benitez signing, to his assumption of a pivotal role in the side - is one of the success stories of the modern Liverpool team, and one of the rare examples of a Brazilian wonderkid successfully adapting to the English game. It took a fair few seasons, and a certain amount of patience from coaches, players, and fans - who recognised his physical and mental commitment to the team even during difficult times.
Now he's found his role in the team, and found the form everyone thought he was capable of, it's unfortunate that injury has hampered his progress. But hopefully Lucas can return for a 2012/13 campaign which will build on the recent successes for both the player and the club.
