Lucas Leiva (Liverpool > S.S. Lazio)

Lucas was our best player today, the only one who managed to pass the ball forwards without losing it, plus he won it back constantly.

, it's a lame excuse to deviate his weaknesses and focus only on his strengths.

Alonso, Mascherano and Hamann all played DM roles, but done a lot more with their passing and authority while playing in that role.

I think you are misunderstanding the role.

Alonso wasn't a DM he was a Deep Lying Playmaker (a DLPM) like Pirlo.

In Milan, Pirlo needed Gattuso to do the running, pressing and put in the tackles for him. At Juve, Marchisio and Vidal did the same. In the Italian side De Rossi performs the same role when the other two aren't available.

Alonso needed to play alongside Hamann, Masch or Leiva for the same reason. At Real, Diarra and Khedeira and at Bayern, Lahm and Martinez protect him.

In terms of a defensive midfielder, Masch is a better tackler and Hamann was more mobile but in terms of overall play as a DM Leiva is equal to both of them with notably better positioning and distribution.

If you can find it, Gary Neville did an excellent analysis of his style when he showed how he kept YaYa Toure in his pocket at a time when he was rampaging through the rest of the league.

Glad to see him back.

MOTM? what did he do exactly?

I thought he was nothing special really, lacks a lot again, defended well and almost got himself sent off too.

You do realize that our defense has started playing better since the introduction of Lucas? 2 clean sheets I do believe. He's supporting our defenders much better than Gerrard was in that position.

Quite a treat to watch yesterday, he was everywhere he needed to be and more, totally motm for me.

His passing was little off in the first half. Was trying to feed forwards as much as possible but there wasn´t enough movement in front of him to split the defense. Though he´d struggle fitness wise in the 2nd but Lucas raised his game and the tempo of our play. Hard tackles, crisp passing, a decent shot and brave, towering header near the end to put the ball into the mix. Got turned a few times otherwise well done Leiva.

Not on the same wavelength as attackers, and tried to force a couple of passes, when an attacker made a different run to the one he was expecting.
He'll get that right though, and it's interesting to see how high up the pitch BR has him at times.
Kept the ball moving, kept possession, spread the play, broke up attacks before they got started at times, and took one for the team to deny a quick break.
Does the dirty work very well.

Was excellent the other day keep it up Lucas.

Lucas proving his doubters wrong yet again. Arguably our most important player right now. In my opinion  without doubt our most important player.

Some missplaced passes, poor headers straight back to opposition, otherwise quallity esp. the 1st half, feeding attackers with crisp forward balls on the ground, a good few tackles and interceptions, good positioning mostly, shame he didnt score, great control and quick shot with left foot but no cigar again.. Tiring a bit later on.

Since he returned to the starting line up on the 26th November, our record is as follows

P10   W5  D4  L1

The game we lost was to United away and he didn't feature.

Think he deserves massive credit and would be a mistake to even think about selling him in January.

Mancini wants him more than Rodgers so thanks for all Lucas, some great memories. ynwa

If he goes to Italy he will seriously dominate given the pace they play at. Always been a Lucas fan, hope he stays I feel he's one of the dying breed footballers. Honest and gets on with it does his best always...

Unless some of you haven't realised Lucas is a nailed on starter now he has fought his way back in to the team played very well and earned his place back. Yes he is dog slow but he was never a fast player to begin with. He is our only defensive midfielder. Lucas is going nowhere in January.

Which top-flight star is the toughest tackler of 2014?

Want to know which Premier League player was the busiest when it came to putting his foot in during the course of the last 12 months?

Well, that award goes to Liverpool’s holding midfielder Lucas Leiva, who on average made a tackle every 21.2 minutes in the Premier League this year, with Manchester United’s Marouane Fellaini only marginally behind the Brazilian on 22.1 minutes.

And another Reds midfielder makes an appearance in the top-five most prolific tacklers of 2014, with Wales international Joe Allen getting stuck in on average every 22.8 minutes, while there are also no surprises to see the name of Chelsea’s influential defensive midfielder Nemanja Matic on this list (24.1).

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/15116/9625522/martin-tyler-picks-out-the-best-stats-from-the-past-12-months-in-the-premier-league

Excellent today.

Excellent today.

Agreed. Lucas was very good today, especially in the second half.

Agreed. Lucas was very good today, especially in the second half.

Yep, very good again. Has been since he got back in the side.

No surprise to see our unbeaten and much more defensively sound form coincides with Lucas' re-introduction.

He's getting back to optimum level. His positioning is superb.

Great game by Lucas today, hope it's not true about him transferring out. 

Is a massive factor in the fact we're picking up points now in my opinion.

Keep going kid....keep proving them wrong.

He's getting back the consistency thank goodness. Thing is, he always seems to suffer if he has Gerrard alongside him, vice versa with Gerrard. But when both are played with Gerrard in attacking midfield, it seems perfect.

I hope its a thing Rodgers has noticed. Such is the lack pace in defensive midfield when these two play in that position, it's horrible to see both get pasted in midfield as neither complement each other. But its great to see Lucas holding his own again with a more mobile player alongside him.

Been one of our top performers for the past few weeks and like others have said, it shows in our results (Leicester game aside).

Very important player for us & results with Lucas in the team speak for themselves.