Classy kid. Sucks to lose another midfielder. Good thing we actually signed Charlie Adam. Where's Meireles?
apparently this Diane person is the anti typical grammar Nazi... PS: maybe we should read the subtitle. the book is about how pressure groups restrict what students learn.
You know it's funny - I'm in palo alto for work and went out last night an got bombed (unplanned) - and I've been struggling all day. When I typed that post, I sat an looked at it for a minute and said that doesn't look right. But since my brain wasn't functioning at anywhere near optimal efficiency - I said f it.
OptaLFC Opta LFC 6.81 - Charlie Adam has the highest average distance covered per game with 6.81 miles, ahead of Leiva Lucas with 6.78 miles. Work-Rate.
Interesting, if Jay Spearing is able to hold his own and successfully patch up the Lucas injury, that's the stat that's gonna set the Adam haters straight.
Even harsh critics like myself have been extremely appreciative and supportive of his performances lately. His rate of improvement over the last few weeks/last month has been better, and quicker than expected. I just hope that the other midfielders can support him like Lucas did, because he now becomes even more vital to our success this season.
So Lucas has returned to Brazil for his surgery. Interesting he choose to go there and not to the guy in the states everyone else goes to.
I don't blame him. He's out for awhile, so at the very least he can make the best of it by going back home and spending time with his family, which includes his still relatively newborn child.
Honestly how was it that big of a difference. Before he was wrongly sent of we were in control of the game dominating possession and easily had a clean sheet. At one point in the 2nd half we had 78% possession. Jay in his 70minutes had made 51 passes 43 of which was successful and won 3 of his 4 tackles and made 5 interceptions. In our last two away games: Chelsea: In his 90 minutes he made 44 passes 39 of which was successful and won 5 of his 7 tackles and made 6 interceptions. WBA: In his 90 minutes he made 50 passes 48 of which was successful and won 5 of his 6 tackles and made 3 interceptions. Now despite these stats being pretty similar Lucas is clearly the better player and if your argument is that at some point we'll miss his contribution than I agree with you 100 and 10%. But today had nothing to do with Lucas being missing. Once again it was down to our horrendous finishing and Lucas, as good as he is, doesn't contribute goals or assists because of his position.
The one pass that he doesn't have the ability to complete, or he doesn't want to use is the quick, forward pass that makes the opposition midfield turn around. That is one of Lucas' best attributes in possession. And that is a massive loss.
Doesn't magically improve the attackers finishing though. Lucas could of played todays game and we'd still be talking about our failure to score.
No, but Lucas' ability with the ball helps us create better scoring chances. Not only does Lucas have the ability to find forwards/attackers with forward passes in central and more crowded positions, but by doing this and forcing the opposition midfielders to turn, it then allows the forwards to play the ball to Adam in more space facing forwards. For someone like Adam, this is a huge positive. These are the kind of subtle qualities that Lucas has that can help the team greatly.
And yet it hasn't helped us in the league this season. City have got more than treble the goals we have, 18th and 19th placed teams have outscored us. Lucas has missed 2 league games this season and in those 2 games we've had 49 shots on goal. With Lucas and without him we create a healthy amount of chances his presence in the game today would of done little to make us score. As good as he is, and there will be games in the next 6 months when we'll miss him today wasnt one of them.
Spearing wasn't poor, but he wasn't good either. Sadly, it's not Spearing's fault that Adam is mediocre and Andy Carroll is dogshit. Let me REEMPHASIZE that ANDY CARROLL is DOGSHIT.
A media firestorm is inevitable should he ever pull out of a challenge. Were I in charge (which would be an unmitigated disaster FWIW), I'd require Lucas watch Masch and Alonso "best of" clips during his rehab.