Thursday, February 5, 2009

Derby wrap: Bring me the head of Lucas Leiva, Redux

Hey, what can I say? They are out of the Cup, and as I said after the Stoke match, one of Rafa's favorites is just bound and determined to send me rambling mindlessly through the streets, banging my head off random brick buildings every few minutes and muttering obscenities under my breath.

Look, it sucks losing to Everton – in anything. But is the Cup really something Liverpool wants to be concerned with right now? They lost Gerrard after 15 minutes Wednesday, and Torres got kicked from pillar to post across Goodison for more than 90 minutes. Save 'em for what really matters. The Chelsea match on Sunday sucked me back in and got me to start up the self-delusion machine. "You know, if they somehow pull off the miracle at Old Trafford and then, you know, maybe United slips here and there with some unexpected draws and Liverpool goes on a run out of nowhere, you know, just maybe ..." We all know the arguments, so I'll stop there.

But before I let go the encounters with Everton for the 2008-09 season, let's stop for a second and once again curse the name of Lucas Leiva and his inability to rise to the occasion in even the slightest acceptable fashion. Since my bounty was announced in that link above, we've seen Lucas needlessly gift Wigan a penalty and help Liverpool drop two precious League points. And on Wednesday, already booked, Lucas made the referee's second yellow an easy decision with how he tumbled over Lescott as Everton sprung the counter. I mean, even I could have made it look less obvious ... or I would have got my money's worth and just absolutely shattered Lescott. Whatever, thanks for making your teammates run needlessly while a man down for an extra 45 minutes in the Cup, Lucas.

From time to time, I enjoy checking in on the ol' Match Pricks analytics and seeing what people are plugging into search engines that bring them to this here site. I checked it tonight and found there were two searches for this one:

• "lucas leiva shirtless"

Should Rafa keep playing Lucas in anything that matters, Match Pricks will be the No. 1 destination for a search seeking "Lucas Leiva headless" if I have anything to say about it.

2 comments:

Darrell said...

Playing Everton from a Liverpool standpoint must be more annoying than trying to pass a chick driving while she's chatting on her bluetooth but yet she doesn't know how to use her cruise control...going back and forth until the point of frustration where you would give a long, unneeded stare when you finally last pass her!

Ian Smith said...

I guess the best thing to happen in the game after Gerrard's injury was the sending off of Lucas because he can not fill in for the next 3 weeks. It in away forces Rafa to be a bit more adventurous in his team selection playing Benayoun or Babel. If Lucas was available Rafa would be cautious and pack the middle of the park. Im happy he got sent off so that we don't have to look at his stupid face for at least 3 games