Search the Community

His tackling isn't great, his distribution has been oveall poor and the next person who tells me he is box to box or worse an attacking midfielder is getting a slap. He could be one day, but in the prem, he just blatently is not. Yet despite all of this I still have faith in the lad. He has been booed on and booed off. He is the only man that could play a significant part in winning a derby and yet be lambasted for not being Steven Gerrard (something I was guilty of). So why will he improve? Because he has the desire to do so and a manager who sees potential in him. Lucas is fast becoming a favourite of mine based soley on his will to succeed. He is constantly trying to better himself and towards the end of the season he actually did. It came as a shock to me that he began to add an element of consistency into his game but the one thing he has improved more than anything, so much so it is part of his game that Mascherano can only dream of, is his positioning. He was at first a lazy player, I know that is something that could never have been levelled at him in Brazil but when he came here he looked out of his depth and we jumped on him which led to him not having the drive a player like him so sorely needs. He has it now and he is also working on his upper body strength in the form of weight training, this is what could make him a much better player. Until he learns to time his tackles he will never be as good as he could or should be but if he can make himself a presence on the field (as he did towards the end of the season) then this could go a long way to building on his confident end to the season and who knows what he might be able to do with or without the ball. For all these reasons I see him being the surprise package next season. I see myself and many others eating our words and I wish the lad the best of luck, because if anyone in our side deserves it (aside from Degen) then it is him.