Another weekend, and yet another deeply disappointing performance by Kenny Dalglish’s charges on the pitch, as they failed to take full advantage of those higher placed in the league table’s slip-ups. Many will point to a direct link between Luis Suarez’s absence from the starting line-up and the recent downturn in both performances and results, however, I think if you dig a little deeper, the club’s most important player is another absentee altogether.

Brazilian midfielder Lucas Leiva has emerged as a player of genuine world-class ability over the past year or so. Since Dalglish’s return to the helm, he has been integral to any success that the side has had.

After damaging his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the Carling Cup quarter final win over Chelsea, Lucas underwent surgery that will see him miss the rest of the season. Since that fateful day, while trying not to sound too dramatic, Liverpool’s form has been up and down more times than a yo-yo and the club have gravely missed one of its most consistent performers in recent times.

The club have had 11 fixtures across all competitions since the Chelsea game on 29th November – they have a record of won five, drawn three and lost three; with two of those victories coming in cup competitions. It’s hardly the sort of league form that will help the club ensure Champions League football for the coming season.

Not enough has been made of the fact that a significant portion of NESV’s transfer investment has been staked on the premise that the club deliver Champions League football next season. The huge sums of money spent on the likes of Downing, Carroll and Henderson were made early and decisively so that the squad’s performance on the pitch would help shore up any losses that the club may incur in the short-term.

The ‘Moneyball’ approach as it has so often been termed, in reference to Billy Beane’s Oakland A’s, has failed to live up to expectations so far, with many of those big name signings and summer acquisitions failing to perform.

In those 11 fixtures since Lucas’s absence, Liverpool have scored just 14 goals, with 5 of those coming in the victory over League One Oldham at Anfield, in a game in which the performance on the pitch was hugely distorted by the somewhat unfair scoreline at the final whistle on Paul Dickov’s side.

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The one thing that has hampered the side all season has been a lack of cutting edge in front of goal. It’s clear that the side lacks the requisite pace to truly trouble any side that’s organised or determined enough to stop it. The team also lacks a recognised goalscorer, simply settling for the ‘Suarez or bust’ tactic.

Categorising Lucas as the club’s most important player is not to undervalue the importance of Suarez, though. The side are all at sea without his invention and craft. Nevertheless, the lack of organisation shown by the Liverpool back line during the Bolton performance was a knock-on effect of the fact that the midfield in front of them simply aren’t doing their jobs as well as they were just a few short months ago.

Jay Spearing is a decent deputy to Lucas, but he cannot replace his calming influence in the midfield engine room. Nor can returning club legend Steven Gerrard for that matter. Gerrard has been asked to perform a deeper role than many would have assumed since his return to the side through injury; in short, helping to compensate for the absence of Lucas.

Gerrard’s strengths lie in his innate ability to make something happen further up the pitch. He’s wasted lying deeper against the so-called lesser-sides. It has become patently obvious over the last few seasons that Gerrard just doesn’t like tracking back anymore either, and a degree of laziness has certainly crept into his game.

Of course, this isn’t to do a disservice to his superb job in marshalling the midfield in the Carling Cup game against Man City that saw the side come away with an unlikely yet crucial 1-0 victory as they head into the second leg at Anfield. The context of this, though, is that little was expected of the team in that game, whereas against sides like Bolton, Liverpool are expected, on reputation alone, to make more of a go of it, Gerrard is clearly best utilised higher up the pitch. He is still a crucially important player at the club, there’s no doubt about that, but the side have shown a resilience in the past without his presence that they currently aren’t displaying in Lucas’s.

Suarez is missed hugely, but with just five goals to his name in the league so far this season, the existing problems of failing to put the ball in the back of the net consistently are not fresh ones.  It would be ignorant to think that his presence in the side automatically turns games like Bolton into easy fixtures. These very same problems existed with and without Suarez and a lot of that comes down to a lack of planning on the manager’s behalf.

However, the recent lack of organisation is a new problem. The club’s saving grace this season has been the excellent partnership of Agger and Skrtel at the back and the promising midfield partnership of Lucas and Adam in midfield that was just beginning to show signs of bearing fruit. They are far from being dominant like Newcastle’s Tiote and Cabaye or Tottenham’s Parker and Modric, but they were, for the most part, complementing each other well.

The midfield had a stable platform. Both players knew their roles and the side had an ebb and flow to their style of play that was reminiscent of some of the great Liverpool sides of years gone by, even if the side wasn’t on a par when it comes to individual ability.

Liverpool obviously require more pace out wide and a much more clinical edge in front of goal, but these aren’t essential to the side achieving top four football this season, they are desired improvements. Whereas the club, inactive so far this transfer window, may have to seriously look at replacing Lucas in the short-term, for his influence in the middle of the park has been hugely missed.

Joni Mitchell once wrote that: ‘you don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone’, it’s only in his continued absence through injury now that we are truly beginning to gauge the importance that Lucas has had on the club’s revival under Dalglish.

You can follow me on Twitter @JamesMcManus1

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