If you believe Liverpool manager Raphael Benitez there are few midfielders more suited for the Premier League than Lucas Leiva. After all, Benitez has spent much of his 2009-2010 campaign lobbying on behalf of the twenty-two year old Brazilian. Benitez praises Levia’s work rate and dedication to the team, all the while ignoring his glaring deficiencies. Liverpool supporters from Merseyside to Mumbai have been lamenting Leiva’s inclusion in Benitez’s first team since the departure of Xavi Alonso. Replacing Alonso was always going to be a challenge, but after Sunday’s dismal performance against Chelsea it is concretely clear that Leiva is never going to be the man for that task.

This is a player that is simply not good enough for the daily rigors of the English Premier League. Yes, at times he looks like a fluid player that is capable of stringing together a few passes. However, against the likes of Chelsea, Aston Villa, and Spurs he has looked entirely out of his depth this season. The Chelsea match was particularly striking. Leiva appeared tactically naive and physically inferior as Chelsea’s midfield bossed the game and easily pushed the Brazilian off the ball. Benitez has exhausted the English media by plugging Leiva’s ability to give his all, but after Sunday’s 2-0 defeat it is obvious the midfielder brings little more than useless energy to the side.

Moreover, this is not a new problem for Liverpool. Benitez has been attempting to integrate Leiva into the first team for the better part of two years. So I put the question to you, the readers of EPL Talk: is Lucas Leiva good enough for Liverpool Football Club? Is his style of play strong enough for the English Premier League? If nothing else English football is associated with pace and physicality, two qualities that Leiva clearly lacks. At times the midfielder forlornly wanders the middle of the park, giving balls away while simultaneously disrupting Liverpool’s offensive output.

This behavior has deeply effected Steven Gerrard’s play in 2009. Against Chelsea the Liverpool skipper was forced to drop deeper in an effort to link midfield with attack, disrupting his offensive rhythm with Fernando Torres. Gerrard is renowned for his forward runs and box-to-box capacity, but on Sunday fans saw little of this as Chelsea ran riot in the second half.

Of course Liverpool’s misfortunes are not the sole responsibility of one player. Jamie Carragher has looked his age thus far and Dirk Kuyt has been incredibly ineffective on the right during this young season. Liverpool’s internal struggles are also well documented, as owners George Gillette and Tom Hicks continue to drag the club’s reputation through the mud.

Nevertheless, Leiva’s lack of creativity in midfield is the most pressing matter for the Reds on the pitch. Summer signing Alberto Aquilani is returning to health and is predicted to make his first start for Liverpool in the Carling Cup at the end of October. Even if Aquilani usurps Leiva’s place in Benitez’s midfield, Liverpool will still need to call on the Brazilian down the stretch. Most pundits cite Liverpool’s lack of depth as the primary reason that the Merseysiders will not end their twenty-year title drought in 2010. The fixture congestion created by playing in four competitions will certainly test this theory, and Lucas Leiva does little to ease these concerns.

I was so tempted to ape the feel of the misleading headline that first brought this story to my attention: “John Barnes set for Rovers Role”. He’s taking over Blackburn? I thought. Ah… (after clicking on the link) …Tranmere Rovers.

So when it came time for my own sensationalist slant on things, how about: John Barnes To Return To Liverpool!

No. I couldn’t do that to you. I’ll put Merseyside and a question mark in the title just to be safe.

Still, there is a sentimental tingling attached to the idea of the former Merseyside hero returning to the Liverpool area, yes?

Tranmere sacked manager Ronnie Moore on Friday. Moore failed to deliver the club to the play-offs and a chance at promotion to the Championship, but more importantly, perhaps, was the 19% drop in attendance. This was cited as the club’s desire for “a new direction.”

Meanwhile, Barnes’s seven month contract was up as manager of the Jamaican National Team. Originally told it would be renewed, Barnes has expressed dissapointment he won’t be there to bring Jamaica to the Gold Cup in July.

So now Barnes is supposedly in “talks” with Tranmere about Moore’s vacated post. Tranmere have also expressed interest in two other former Liverpool FC players taking the role: Jason McAteer and Paul Ince. Like Moore, McAteer also once played for Tranmere. Two former Liverpool legends have managed Tranmere in the past: Roy Yeats and John Aldridge.

Barnes has not managed a club side since his brief stint in charge of Celtic. Like his Jamaica job, his reign at Celtic only lasted seven months. The Glascow side sacked him after Inverness Caldonian upset them out of the Scottish Cup. Criticisms then that Barnes style clashed with the team have been reiterrated recently by former Celtic defender Alan Stubbs.

But in the above linked BBC article from 2000, there is also a telling quote from former Celtic director Brian Dempsey:

“Celtic is a difficult club for anyone to either play at or be involved with in management at any level.

“As Mr Barnes put it at his press conference, to ‘cut his teeth’ into management at Celtic was an almost impossible task from the beginning.”

Perhaps Tranmere would be a better arena for Mr Barnes to make a new go of managing at the club level. The pressure won’t be the same as at Glascow, but he would have the challenges of bringing the club to the next set of playoffs (or better) as well as raising attendence.

It would be nice to see Barnes do well. If Celtic was too intense a place to “cut his teeth”, winning the Caribbean Cup with Jamaica may have been too easy. It’s been suggested that since Barnes had a “vastly superior squad” compared to his regional counterparts, the Caribbean Cup was not a “true test” of his abilities.

If he gets the job, Barnes should approach Tranmere (and Tranmere should approach Barnes) as a fresh beginning. Neither should let his failure with Celtic or his success with Jamaica set an unfair standard in either direction.

A League One side that finished just below the playoffs is a reasonable place to test Barnes’s abilities. If he can bring them success and if he can at least put bodies in seats with quality football, we will finally know that Barnes has the tools to be a good manager.