"He brought me to Liverpool and helped me to develop as a player. When I first came to the club the expectation was really high. I’m Brazilian but not everyone is a really skilful player like Romario  or Ronaldinho . At the time I wasn’t ready to play in the Premier League. My body wasn’t ready. That’s why Rafa is one of the most important people for me. He gave me games and that’s the only way you improve. It’s hard when you are getting criticised but I wouldn’t change anything about my career at Liverpool. I’ve got no problem with the people who didn’t like me before. I knew I had to improve to make the fans change their opinion of me. There will be more difficult times but I’ll handle them".


Lucas Leiva speaking, among other topics in the interview, on how important has been Rafa in his football career:

"We all know the relationship I have with Rafa, I don’t need to explain that. If it wasn’t for Rafa I probably wouldn’t be here. Rafa was so important for me [...]".