Lucas Leaver As Liverpool Midfielder Joins Lazio

Liverpool may well be frustrated in their bid to land the likes of Virgil Van Dijk and Naby Keita this summer but that does not mean there has been no transfer activity this summer, unfortunately for Liverpool fans the only news as of late is a departure from the club.

The player in question who has moved on from Merseyside is Brazilian international Lucas Leiva who has swapped Liverpool for Rome after joining Serie A outfit Lazio for a fee of £5m. This brings an end to a decade long stint with the club

Bought to Merseyside by Rafa Benitez back in 2007 it has been a steady if not spectacular stint for the club. In a 9 year spell he has only managed to pick up one piece of silverware, with that being the 2012 League Cup success when they beat Cardiff on Penalties.

But Leiva would not feature in the final and only picked up a medal after appearing in earlier rounds of the competition due to the fact that he was out injured from December 2011. He would be on the sidelines for the rest of the season after picking up a serious cruciate ligament injury against Chelsea in the League Cup Quarter Finals.

And critics would argue that he has never quite been the same player since that return. That’s not to be harsh to Lucas but many players are rarely the same after suffering an injury of such magnitude. That said he was still trusted with over 70 Premier League appearances over the next three seasons under the helm of both Brendan Rodgers and Jurgen Klopp.

But this season his route to the first team looks to be have been somewhat curtailed with the Brazilian falling down the pecking order. He has made just 8 Premier League appearances with only 3 of them coming in the form of a starting eleven berth.

And it’s here where Jurgen Klopp decided to be honourable enough not to stand in Lucas way should another offer come in for the player. In light of his lengthy years of service it seems as if his time is now coming to a natural conclusion with an amicable parting of ways.

With Lucas now at the age of 31 years old where he feels he should be a fixture of a first team lineup and not have to be competing with a now diminished squad role. Unfortunately that is not something that could be promised to him at Anfield.

 

He made 31 appearances in all competitions last season but was largely deployed as a centre-back by manager Jurgen Klopp and with Liverpool looking to reinforce that area of the pitch this summer then the likelihood of Lucas getting regular football would have diminished further.

Liverpool fans will certainly applaud his efforts during his long stint of service with the club, he may not have been the most technically gifted player especially when Brazilian’s are concerned but there was no doubting the tenacity he showed when on the pitch.