When he first arrived at the club, manager Brendan Rodgers spoke of building a side around Liverpool's holding midfielder; in his latest press conference he talked about Lucas as a disciple of the possession and pressing game he hopes to install at the club. With the player out until at least early December through injury, though, Rodgers believed it was important to keep him involved in some way.
The answer? To send Lucas out to scout Liverpool's upcoming opponents.
"Lucas is at home for a bit and he has good days and bad days," said Rodgers in an interview with the Liverpool Echo. "We will keep his spirits up and I’m going use him to go out and look at some games for me with my analyst. Tactically, he’s very good. I want to make sure that he stays in the game. Sometimes when you stand back and look at it from a different position you pick up different things. I put that idea to him and he thought it was good."
It may not quite be the role most fans–or the manager—would have been hoping to see Lucas fill this autumn. Still, if he is out, then getting what is perhaps the club's most tactically astute player involved in the scouting of opponents while he recovers from injury does seem a natural fit, and if it pays some small dividends on the pitch down the road then it's all the better.