The reputation of Liverpool supporters as the team’s ‘twelfth man’ is long established and with good reason.
The vocal and emotional encouragement provided from the terraces and stands is often celebrated as a key factor in helping the Reds overcome seemingly insurmountable barriers both individually and collectively.
Liverpool’s unparalleled history can be seen as one of the club’s biggest blessings but also one of its biggest curses however as the Anfield crowd is one of the most demanding in the game and not normally slow in letting their heroes know if they don’t like what they’re seeing.
And for all that the values of collectivism and empathy many in the city like to pride themselves on have been reflected in the nature of the support the football team which carries its name has received, Liverpudlians can sometimes display a harsh, hostile face to their own as well as their opponents.
It is not just a modern day phenomena either with even a manager as successful as Bob Paisley once having to ask in his programme notes for the crowd to be more supportive when his side were going through a rare rough spell and there have been a number of players who have felt the ire of the Anfield faithful who love a whipping boy on occasion as much as any other crowd.
They also love a redemption story and there have been few more impressive ones than that of a young overseas player who joined the Reds early on in one of the most turbulent periods in Liverpool history and, having endured a tough beginning which saw him booed by his own supporters and further setbacks along the way, left ten years later with the thanks and admiration of many.
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Lucas Leiva arrived at Anfield in the autumn of 2007 with a growing reputation as one of the best young players in south America.
Having made his debut with Gremio in Brazil’s second division in 2005 after rising through the youth ranks and helping them win promotion, the Brazilian midfielder’s first season in the top flight saw the ‘Imortal Tricolour’ finish third and Lucas become the youngest ever player to receive Placar magazine’s Bola de Ouro - south America’s version of France Football’s ‘Ballon d’Or’ - traditionally given to the best player in the Brazilian league and previously won by luminaries such as Zico, Falcao, Careca, Romario, Kaka and Carlos Tevez.
Another impressive season followed which took him and Gremio all the way to the Copa Libertadores final - south America’s equivalent of the Champions League - while also clinching the Grande do Sul state championship for the first time since 2001 although by then Lucas had already put pen to paper on a £5m deal to take him to Liverpool with the agreement he could stay on his homeland to try and help and vanquish Boca Juniors in the two-legged final.
“I wish to travel to England taking in my suitcase the Copa Libertadores title”, he told Brazilian reporters with the confidence you’d expect of a young man who had recently skippered Brazil U20s to the South American Youth Championships title, scoring four goals in the process, which led the watching Rafa Benitez to make his move.
“I am very happy and thankful that I have been given the chance to remain at Gremio until the end of the Copa Libertadores because playing in this competition and having the chance to win it is something that I have been waiting for since I was a child.”
That dream had to go unfulfilled after Boca beat Gremio 5-0 on aggregate but Benitez was convinced his new young Brazilian, who would captain his country again shortly afterwards at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup, would have plenty of opportunities to achieve new ambitions on Merseyside.
“He is a fantastic player for the present and the future,” Benitez said.
“Lucas’ uncle is a former player called Leivinha, who played for Atletico Madrid. He was a very good player. Lucas thought about following his uncle to Spain, but then he liked Liverpool. He knows it will be difficult, but I’m sure he will be a very good player.
“He is a good worker and he is a winner, a midfielder who likes to move from box to box. He’s not Steven Gerrard, but he likes to get forward.
“We are preparing a team for the short term and for the future, and Lucas is part of this. He will have a part to play this season.
“He has the personality and character to succeed here.”
The Reds had reportedly beaten off interest from Inter Milan and top Spanish clubs to secure the 20-year-old’s signature and Lucas admitted once he heard Liverpool were interested he knew Anfield was his preferred destination.
“I really didn't expect to leave Brazil so soon but what I have been offered and the team from which it came made it impossible to say no,” he admitted.
“Liverpool have made me an excellent proposal in the financial and professional aspects.
“I also realise my departure will be a huge help to Gremio in resolving some of their financial difficulties.
“That makes me happy with the decision and makes me calm with the decision that I took of accepting the transfer.
“I’m not intimidated by playing with these players like Gerrard, Alonso and Mascherano. I hope to show them how well I can play,”
With Gremio recently have produced young players of the quality of Ronaldinho - arguably the world’s top player at the time - and midfielder Anderson who would shortly arrive at Manchester United, Lucas’s pedigree was clear and South American football correspondent Tim Vickery was in no doubt he would be able to follow in their footsteps.
"These moves are always a gamble, but I think this is a good one,” he said.
“He's an exciting player of a type that Brazilian football hasn't produced too many of recently. Of late their central midfielders have tended to be 'holders' who sit and allow the full-backs to push forward.
“Lucas is different. He's a big, blonde figure whose power and physical strength comes with attacking ability. He can pass well and loves to rumble forward. He gets on the scoresheet both with blistering shots from range and from bursting beyond the strikers.
“You can certainly imagine him playing alongside Javier Mascherano, for example.”
Liverpudlians got their first glimpse of Lucas when he came off the bench in the early-season Champions League qualifying win over Toulouse at Anfield and, after making his first start a month later in a League Cup win at Reading, he made his Premier League bow in extraordinary circumstances when Liverpool travelled across Stanley Park for the season’s first Merseyside derby in mid-October.
The Reds had fallen behind to Sami Hyypia’s own goal midway through the first half but when Steven Gerrard raced clear nine minutes after the break and was brought down by Tony Hibbert, who was then shown the red card by referee Mark Clattenburg, and Dirk Kuyt equalised from the penalty spot, it seemed the tide had turned decisively in the Liverpool’s favour.
With Benitez’s side struggling to make the extra man tell however, on 72 minutes the Liverpool manager made one of the most jaw-dropping decisions of his management career, bringing on his new Brazilian Lucas in place of iconic midfielder and club captain Gerrard, whose surging run had won the spot-kick which had drawn the Reds level less than 20 minutes earlier.
The 3,000 travelling Kopites packed in the Bullens Road stand, as well as millions of supporters and television viewers across the world, could not believe what they were seeing and Gerrard’s bewildered facial expression spoke volumes as well.
Speaking about the incident in LFC TV’s ‘Lucas: Ten Years A Red’ documentary years later, Lucas suggested the newness of his surroundings and his inexperience of the derby protected him somewhat from the highly unusual and intense context of his first taste of top-flight football in England.
“One of the good things about that game was I didn’t know much because I was new, it was kind of just another game.
“Rafa told me to warm up and I went to warm up and he called me over and told me I was coming on, gave me a few tactical words and I didn’t know who for, I only knew when the referee’s assistant showed Stevie was coming off.
“I knew it was a tough change, Stevie is Stevie, but at the end it worked.”
It worked for Benitez as Liverpool still won, just about, despite his gamble in hooking his skipper but it almost worked out beyond anything Lucas’s wildest dreams the night before could have imagined.
The game was still locked at 1-1 when, with the clock ticking into stoppage time, Jermaine Pennant’s cross from the right was deflected into the path of Kuyt whose shot was blocked by goalkeeper Tim Howard into the path of Lucas, unmarked on the penalty spot, with the goal gaping.
The Brazilian’s eyes must have lit up as the chance of becoming a derby hero on his league debut beckoned and he carefully side-footed the ball goalwards for what should have been the winner only to see Toffees captain Phil Neville do a passable impersonation of Neville Southall by palming his goal-bound shot away.
The former Manchester United star went sent off and Dirk Kuyt cooly slotted home his second spot kick of the afternoon give Liverpool the win but a rueful Lucas later admitted the incident almost foretold the misfortune he would go on to suffer at Anfield.
“When I look back I just think that moment was telling me my life, my career in Liverpool would be hard! If that shot had gone in maybe it would have been a bit easier but you know that’s life.
“The celebrations we had afterwards with the fans helped me understand the derby a little bit more, Stevie came over and gave me a nice hug.”
The Liverpool skipper admitted he was surprised to have been substituted in such circumstances but felt his replacement deserved to have seen his name on the scoresheet.
“I’ll be honest, you come off in any game as a Liverpool player and you’re disappointed, especially for a young kid who's got a lot less experience than you.
“Credit to Lucas though, away from home in a Merseyside derby, he was fantastic and should have got the winner.”
The Liverpool manager was unrepentant afterwards and revealed he had taken the shock decision because he felt his skipper was playing with “too much passion”.
"Steven Gerrard is a fantastic player, there is no doubt about this. But we were playing a game we needed to win and I needed to take decisions”, Benitez said.
"If I need to change Pepe Reina, I will change Pepe Reina. Sometimes you need to wait, sometimes you need to do it straight away and today I took the decision.
"Some players today were playing with too much passion. You must play with passion, but also analyse that we had plenty of possession and needed to use the ball better. We were giving the ball away and they were causing problems with the long ball.
"Lucas is a player with quality. We needed to control the game because we were playing with 11 players against 10. We were playing with too much passion and we needed to keep the ball and pass the ball. Lucas can do this.
"He nearly scored and he is a really good boy with game intelligence and I have a lot of confidence in him.”
That faith was backed up by the manager who handed Lucas two Premier League starts before Christmas, both of which resulted in handsome wins away to Newcastle and at home to Bolton, and the young midfielder’s first Liverpool goal followed shortly into the new year when he curled home a 25-yarder against Havant & Waterlooville in the FA Cup.
A disappointing Premier League defeat at West Ham in the next match saw Benitez give Lucas a run of five successive starts which included a Champions League win over Inter Milan at Anfield and he also got the nod for the return leg victory in the San Siro as well as the Anfield derby triumph over Everton at the end of March, finishing an encouraging maiden campaign with a respectable tally of 32 appearances in all competitions - 20 of them from the start - despite some amusing acclimatisation problems.
“During my first month at Liverpool I had some problems with the language, particularly when I was talking with Jamie Carragher”, he admitted.
“One day he was talking to me but it was so fast I didn't have a clue what he was saying, so I just said 'Yes' when he stopped speaking.
“He didn't look happy, so I said 'No', and he walked off, still not looking happy. Still to this day I have no idea what he was talking about.”
Lucas’s second season on Merseyside however was a different story altogether, despite looking similar from a numbers point of view with again 20 starts across all competitions in 39 appearances overall, and an indicator of the character the Brazilian would have to tap into if he was to make a success of his time at Anfield.
Benitez’s side would rack up a club record Premier League points tally of 86 and put in the most credible title challenge of the modern era, losing only twice in the league and beating Manchester United home and away, but the cracks in the Hicks and Gillett regime and the Liverpool owners' flawed financial model were beginning to show.
The lack of depth in the squad proved telling in the final analysis as frustration and dissent within the fanbase gradually bubbling to the service as the intense pressure to see Liverpool back on their fabled perch after nearly two decades of Old Trafford dominance saw Lucas find himself at the centre of it during one of the home draws in the first half of the campaign which many now look back on as one of the key reasons the Reds fell just short.
Despite missing star striker Fernando Torres for two months after an early season hamstring injury picked up at Aston Villa, Benitez’s had put themselves firmly in the title picture by beating reigning domestic and European champions Manchester United at Anfield in September, going top of the table towards the end of October after breaking Chelsea’s 86-game four-and-a-half unbeaten home record in the Premier League thanks to Xabi Alonso’s winner at Stamford Bridge.
The Reds had slipped to second but only on goal difference after a first league defeat away to Spurs at the beginning of November but the home clash with Fulham later that month would highlight the agitation and desperation sections of the Anfield crowd were feeling to see Liverpool end that long wait for the elusive 19th league championship.
Benitez’s squad rotation policy had already caused much heated debate and, with a Champions League clash against Marseilles to follow four days later, the Liverpool manager left out Xabi Alonso in favour of Lucas despite the fact his midfield was already been missing the injured Steven Gerrard.
Roy Hodgson’s well-organised side made life difficult for the Reds from the start, sitting deep and inviting the home side - with Fernando Torres back in attack but still seeking form and fitness in only his second match following his two-month lay-off - to break them down.
By the mid-point of the first half, sections of the Kop were already calling for the benched Alonso - his name pointedly being chanted a couple of times after errors by Lucas - and when the Spaniard was introduced from the bench after 64 minutes but in place of Javier Mascherano, vociferous boos followed which also sporadically followed the Brazilian, who lasted the full 90 minutes, as the match finished in a goalless stalemate.
Barely a year after all the hope and optimism engendered by his arrival, getting jeered by his own supporters hit the youngster hard and made him question his future at Anfield.
“I was still only 21 and not ready still. For sure I thought the next transfer window I will have to find a solution because it was becoming very difficult for me. It’s hard to say but I felt something was always against me being able to succeed for Liverpool.
“It hurt and I will never forget it but I had to move on. After that moment I started to be a stronger person and a better player.”
There were glimpses of the talents which had won such plaudits in south America, Lucas producing a sublime assist for Steven Gerrard in the 5-1 win at Newcastle which put Liverpool three points clear at the top of the Premier League heading into 2009.
But the Brazilian’s continued struggles to get up to speed with the demands of the English game saw him concede a late penalty at Wigan which lead to another costly draw and he was sent off in the FA Cup fourth round replay defeat to Everton at Goodison Park before being openly booed on to the field as a 70th minute substitute against Sunderland with Liverpool’s title charge seemingly having run out of steam by early March.
He did start the 4-1 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford shortly afterwards which breathed new life into the Reds’ hopes as well as both legs of the Champions League quarter-final defeat to Chelsea, scoring in the away leg at Stamford Bridge and bagging his first Premier League goal against Newcastle in early May to at least end a personal campaign of toil in an upwards trajectory, although many of his detractors pointed out the reliance on him and the likes of Nabil El Zhar and David Ngog as back up in contrast to the higher quality deputies Alex Ferguson was able to call on as a crucial difference and reason why the Reds had fallen short, again.
The irony was as the Benitez era began to circle the drain the following campaign - the Spaniard would be sacked in May after Liverpool, having been eliminated from the Champions League in the group stages, finished seventh and missed out on qualification for the season’s competition - Lucas finally began to find some consistent form and win over his critics, establishing himself as a regular performer in midfield following Alonso’s departure to Real Madrid and making 50 appearances with only Pepe Reina, Jamie Carragher and Dirk Kuyt featuring more often.
The growing maturity in his performances were reflected in his mentality.
"When I came to Liverpool, I came with a target: to make history”, he said ahead of the trip to Fulham in October 2009 with hopes having been raised that a 2-0 win over Manchester United the weekend before would breathe new life into a season which had already fallen a long way short of the hope and expectation the previous season’s near-miss would inspire Benitez’s men to go one step better.
“Nobody wants to come to a club and become just one more player. Since that moment against Fulham I tried to protect myself. I stopped reading newspapers. Each time I listened to criticism it made me stronger. If you just get the negative things you don't improve. I just try to get the positive things. A lot of people believe in my qualities.
“Fulham was the worst moment because it was the first time anything like that had happened to me but it was an experience I could learn from. Maybe it will happen again but now I have the experience.
“You have to understand the supporters. They were expecting Xabi [Alonso] that time and he was on the bench. The game wasn't good, we were not playing well so I understand. Playing well is the only way you will change it.”
Lucas’s rise during one of the most difficult periods in Liverpool’s modern history slowly won round at least some of the doubters who began to appreciate that, whatever technical limitations the Brazilian midfielder may have had, his resolute temperament and fighting spirit were something the club was desperately in need of.
Hicks and Gillett’s catastrophic financial mismanagement had led the club to the brink of bankruptcy and with Fulham manager Roy Hodgson having taken over from Benitez in the dug out, the first half of the 2010/11 campaign was excruciating and harrowing in equal measure but Fenway Sports Group’s takeover and Kenny Dalglish’s return, initially as caretaker manager, lifted the dark clouds and gave some hope for the future as the Reds recovered to finish sixth with Lucas’s continued improvement seeing him named as Liverpool’s player of the season.
It was a real moment of pride for the Brazilian, still only 24 years old, who had been through a lot in four tumultuous years at Anfield, much of which had been spent trying to disprove the naysayers among the ever-demanding Liverpool support who questioned his ability and wanted him sold.
"How could I blame Liverpool if they had?”, he said when looking back on that period when he was regularly being linked with a move away from Anfield.
“At that point I had not had a sequence of games long enough for people to see what I was all about. I had the feeling they were not counting on me for the new era. But at the end the club and I reached common ground. I was happy because nobody would want to leave a club as big as Liverpool without a true chance to show their abilities.
"Playing for Liverpool brings a similar kind of pressure to when I represent my country. Both sets of fans have a very low tolerance level of defeat and will not hesitate to demand more from the team. Playing for Liverpool is like being watched by Brazilians!"
His improved form continued with Dalglish now permanently installed as manager for the start of the 2011/12 season but cruel fate interceded when, just days after a stellar performance against a Manchester City side who would go on to be crowned Premier League champions the following May, he suffered a cruciate ligament injury following an innocuous challenge in a League Cup quarter-final at Chelsea which ended his campaign.
“I remember the City game before the Chelsea match which was 48 hours later and I pushed to play because I was in a fantastic run, probably the best I’ve felt, praise from everywhere which was something I wasn’t used to!”, he remembered.
“I was coming off at 60 minutes, we were 2-0 up, and then I got the injury.
“In that moment I felt something in my knee but I was so positive I tried to come back on the pitch but I couldn’t carry on and knew something was going on there.
“I never thought it would be that bad, I knew it was something but never expected it to be that bad. The next day I found out it was an ACL.”
It was a hammer blow not just for the Brazilian but his team-mates and manager who were only too well aware of what he brought to the side even if there were some supporters who could not, and perhaps would not ever be able to, see it.
“Everyone was gutted for him after what had happened but he still came in with a smile on his face”, recalled Dalglish while Steven Gerrard paid tribute to how the Brazilian responded to this latest disappointment in what he now recognised as trademark resilience.
“The making of Lucas from the first moment I met him has been challenges and setbacks”, Gerrard said.
“He almost seems to flex his shoulders and say to himself ‘bring it on, if this situation I’m going to prove to everyone I’ll come back stronger’.
After months of rehab which saw him miss out on two cup finals - Liverpool made sure an additional medal for struck for him after the League Cup final victory over Cardiff City at Wembley - Lucas got himself fit for the start of pre-season and made the starting line up for the opening Premier League game of the season at West Brom, picked by Brendan Rodgers who had now taken over from Dalglish as manager.
But a week later another serious injury picked up in the warm-up before the Anfield opener against champions Manchester City devastated the Brazilian so soon into his return and made him question his whole future in football.
“I was very happy, positive, coming back from a long injury, and then warming up against City, I struck the ball and felt something in my thigh, as if I’d been shot.
“When you are there with the adrenaline you don’t really think it could be bad so I kept going through the warm up, went back to the dressing room and told them I felt a bit of tightness in my leg, on my quad.
“The guys said yeah it’s a little bit tight but there’s no time to test it so I went out and tried a few runs but I just couldn’t and came off after three or four minutes.
“And then they start again, the doubts, after such a long time out, I knew it was an injury but didn’t expect it to be a bad one.
“The next day I went to Melwood for a scan and they said it was a really, really bad thigh injury that would rule me out for three months and I was lucky it would not need surgery.
“At that moment, I thought ‘Three more months? Nah, that’s it for me. Retire’.
“I remember driving home with my wife and just saying ‘Listen, for me that’s it, I’m done. I’m not going to play again and I don’t want to play again because this is too much.
“But of course after you start to think a little bit more clear and then you start the rehab and start to set targets again. Brendan was very patient and I just had to get on with it and recover, I knew it was a long way again but I would be back.”
He returned for the home win over Southampton at the start of December and would make 31 appearances that campaign, almost matching that with 29 the following season as Rodgers’s side went desperately close to a stunning league title success only to fall just short yet again after slips in the final handful of games against Chelsea and Crystal Palace.
In truth, Lucas never quite enjoyed the same kind of influence and regular game time after being stopped in his tracks by that 2011 ACL injury but his fortitude, dependability and professionalism ensured he remained a valued member of the squad for another three seasons which would see him rack up ten years at Anfield, almost unheard of in the modern era particularly for an overseas player.
Jurgen Klopp was certainly in no doubts over the Brazilian’s worth after taking over from Rodgers, naming him captain for only his seventh game in charge against Crystal Palace in November 2015, with Lucas admitting the German’s arrival had made him fall back in love with Liverpool and the game itself.
“The arrival of Klopp has given me a new energy. He shows he has enough confidence in me”, Lucas said.
“I’ve learned a lot from him. He is very demanding, but has clear ideas about football. I have gotten along well with him in the first month.
“He is a pretty straightforward guy, as I imagined from knowing German culture, but he is open too. I feel close to him, knowing he’s the boss.
“I’ve had great times at the club, but this has really been one of my best phases of my years at Liverpool.
“It was a very special moment for me being made captain. I’ve been at Liverpool many years so I know how important it is to be captain of Liverpool.
“I’ve been here many years and managed to get the respect of the fans, but in the beginning it was very complicated. I had a very difficult start and really had to change people’s opinions. I wasn’t prepared. But I had the willpower, and the coaches that helped me evolve.
“I identify very strongly with Liverpool now.”
Klopp even helped Lucas reinvent himself, perhaps more by necessity than design, as an emergency centre half when a defensive injury crisis struck in that first season and he put in one of the best performances of his whole Liverpool career when having to play there against Manchester City in that season’s League Cup final at Wembley, helping keep the likes of Sergio Aguero, Raheem Sterling and David Silva at bay for 120 minutes before, yet again, the bittersweet fortune which seemed to relentlessly follow him struck when he missed a penalty in the shoot-out as Manuel Pellegrini’s men triumphed to head home with the cup.
It was one of a number of effective performances he gave at centre half during this period, former Liverpool forward Andy Carroll later revealing how the Brazilian’s experience and nous had helped him overcome his physical limitations in the position and made him one of the most difficult opponents the big Geordie had faced.
“Oh my God. He played centre half against us,” Carroll said.
“I don’t know what it was. Every time I went for the ball he gave me a little nudge, the referee was never going to give a foul and I never wanted a foul, but he did me every time.
“Just judging me so well and knocking me off balance. I couldn’t play against him.”
Lucas figured 40 times in Klopp’s first part-season in charge but reduced opportunities the following season as the German gradually began to assemble the squad around him that he wanted led the Brazilian to conclude the time was right after a decade at Anfield for a new challenge and he announced his attention to depart at the end of the season, which concluded fittingly with Liverpool securing a return to the Champions League on the final day of the season and Anfield paying him a warm farewell after his 342nd and final appearance for the club.
It was a measure of his contribution over his time at Liverpool that, as well as receiving a Special Recognition Award presented to him by Kenny Dalglish at the club’s post-season award ceremony, a special ten year anniversary party was held in his honour at which he gave a speech thanking all those who helped him through his tough times at the club and expressing his belief that glory days would soon return to Anfield.
"Thank you very much, it’s been an incredible ten years. Many of you became close friends for sure, I will always be here to help like I have been before.
"I feel we have a great group of players, great group of people and I am sure in the near future we will bring success together.
“We all know it’s been a little bit like a rollercoaster, a lot of ups and downs, but I’m so proud to wear this shirt every day of my life.
“This club made me better as a person, as a player, I have two kids born in Liverpool.
“For sure, my kids will be really proud when they grow up, come to Anfield and watch games, and know their dad played for Liverpool.”
Jurgen Klopp said Lucas had been one of the best professionals he had ever worked with and paid tribute after his £5m departure to Lazio to the legacy he believed the Brazilian had left at Anfield.
"Whenever a player leaves a club it is always a sad moment, but even more so when the player is as popular and influential as Lucas.
"It goes without saying that all of the lads wish him the very best and from my own point of view I've got no doubt that he will be a success in Italy because he is one of the best professionals I have worked with.
"But even though he's not going to be at Liverpool anymore he is leaving a legacy behind. He set the standards of what it is to be a Liverpool player and by doing that he gave all of us an example to follow and that will continue after he has gone."
Steven Gerrard was also fulsome in his praise of a player whose value was underestimated by many but not those who worked closely with him and benefitted from his upbeat personality and character.
“I wish Lucas the best of luck for the rest of his career,” he said.
“He is certainly one of the best people I have met during my time in football, throughout my career.
“I have enormous respect for Lucas, both as a player and as a person. He is one of the most professional players I have ever played alongside.
“In terms of technique, there are many players who can manage the ball as well as he does. However, very few contribute as much as he does without the ball.
“He gave his very best every time he represented Liverpool. You can talk about what he gives to the team, in terms of their style of play. As a human being, Lucas has immense qualities that are just as important as his ability as a footballer."
