Last week on Off The Ball, Tony Barrett of The Times hit on an important point.
The Merseyside correspondent claimed that Liverpool midfielder Lucas Leiva has long been under-appreciated by the club as interest in his signature builds around Europe.
As he pointed out, the Brazilian is often over-looked because of who he is not, rather than what he actually contributes. And what's more, Barrett showed that Lucas rarely comes out on the losing side in the red shirt or the away variety.
Often defensive players with no frills and calm exteriors struggle to capture the attention.
But Lucas' influence is clear when you note that he is ranked second in the Premier League for tackles per game.
He has an average of four per match which is comfortably more than any of his team-mates (Alberto Moreno is next best on 2.5 per game) and second only to Southampton's Nathaniel Clyne in the league.
At two interceptions per match, he is also the leading Liverpool player when it comes to getting in the way of opposition passes.
As this Squawka graphic against Aston Villa shows, discipline is his strong point as he holds a very consistent position in the centre of the pitch:
Unsurprisingly, for a player who keeps things simple, Lucas has a solid pass accuracy rate of 86 per cent.
None of this is to say he is "world class" or a "top, top, top player" to borrow Jamie Redknapp's parlance, but he has brought greater balance to the side since being reintroduced to the fold as Liverpool's formerly porous defence has leaked just three goals in the last five games.
They have also kept five clean sheets in the 12 matches he has played a part in with many of those skewed towards recent weeks when he been sitting in front of the defence.
All stats are courtesy of statistics website Squawka. Learn more about Squawka and the free app by clicking here.
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