Official - Lucas is best tackler in PL
It may come as no surprise to Liverpool fans but now it's official - Lucas Leiva is the best tackler in the Barclays Premier League.
The 26-year-old completed nine tackles in the 6-0 win at Newcastle on Saturday - two more than the entire QPR team in their goalless draw with Reading.
This haul elevated Lucas to third in the tackles won table for 2012-13 behind Southampton's Morgan Schneiderlin and Stoke's Geoff Cameron.
The top 10 is:
Morgan Schneiderlin - 105
Geoff Cameron - 86
Lucas Leiva - 82
Mohamed Diame - 81
Pablo Zabaleta - 80
Craig Gardner - 79
Ramires - 79
Robert Snodgrass - 77
Claudio Yacob - 76
Steve Sidwell -76
As interesting as the above table is, it doesn't take into account how often a player has featured during 2012-13.
For example, Schneiderlin has totalled 105 tackles during more than 3,000 league minutes - whereas Lucas has tallied 82 in fewer than 1,700 minutes.
The more telling table below shows the tackles won per 90 minutes of each of the top 10 - and with 4.4 successful tackles per game, Lucas is head and shoulders above the other contenders.
The adapted top 10 is:
Lucas Leiva - 4.4
Steve Sidwell -3.25
Claudio Yacob - 3.19
Geoff Cameron - 3.15
Morgan Schneiderlin - 3.11
Mohamed Diame - 3.10
Ramires - 3.09
Pablo Zabaleta - 2.91
Craig Gardner - 2.53
Robert Snodgrass - 2.46