For the standard of player a club like Liverpool demands you to be, then yes....they both fell well short. There's nothing wrong with that and they weren't the only ones during that era, 75% of them were terrible.
Terrible is too much. Kuyt was decent, Lucas average. Neither would sniff the sides of the last 10 years.
We did lack real quality on the wings in the Rafa team. Very strong through the middle with Gerrard, Alonso, Mascherano in midfield, Torres up front, but the like of Reira and Kuyt were the difference really from winning a lot more (in fact from winning anything, which is crazy given how good that spine was with Carra, Hyypia at the back, Reina in nets).
The drop off from Alonso (then Mascherano) to the like of Lucas was vast. We ceased being competitive after that until that one season under Rodgers when Henderson became the engine for Gerrard alongside him, with Coutinho the 10 behind Sterling, Sturridge, Suarez.
Kuyt did have some big moments for us (goal vs Cardiff and a pen in the shoot out in the one trophy success between 2007 and 2017), plus Lucas was a good lad albeit a limited player (bought as an attacking mid, too slow, converted into a back up DM and was too slow for that too). Abiding memory of Lucas is being caught the wrong side of the opposing runner who skipped past him; examples being Nasri in one of his last games for Arsenal, and then giving away the free kick on the edge of the box right at the death in the epic Dortmund game after he had just come on. It's mad Lucas had 10 years here even if he was a bit part player for much of it.
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