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There’s been plenty of speculation about Lucas Leiva’s future after he was left out of the squad to face Stoke.

I really hope he stays because I still think he will have a part to play this season. It’s important you have a No.6 who is a proper No.6 and very much a team player – someone whose ambition is for the team rather than himself.

I’ve always liked Lucas. You have to have admiration for the way in which he has stuck at it. He believed he was good enough to succeed at Liverpool and he’s proved that was the case.

His form was outstanding before he suffered that serious knee injury in 2011. I don’t think he’s ever got back to that level and he’s been in and out under Brendan Rodgers but he still has a lot to offer. He’s a popular figure in the dressing room and has a lot of experience in a squad full of players who are relatively new to the club.

I think there will be games where you need Lucas. I don’t see Emre Can playing that holding role. I don’t think he has the mindset or the discipline for it as he will feel he has more to offer further up the pitch.

In Lucas’ absence, it was a scrappy game at Stoke settled by a brilliant strike from Philippe Coutinho, For a long time it had 0-0 written all over it.

The defence got a lot of credit but Stoke were pretty toothless going forward. Christian Benteke will hope that’s not the way we’re going to play in the majority of our away games as he was isolated at times and found it difficult.

We were too direct at times but I think part of that was down to the fact we didn’t go there with confidence. You could see that the whole thing is a work in progress.

The easy bit is organising a team defensively. More difficult is getting a team to function going forward and getting the balance right in midfield.

Enrique has sat and watched for long enough - find a new club

I’m baffled by Jose Enrique’s comments about staying and fighting for a place at Liverpool.

I find it absolutely amazing that anyone would want to stay at a club when they have been told by the manager that they have no chance of playing football.

The writing is on the wall for Enrique. He barely played last season and now he’s training at Melwood away from the first-team squad. Why not just move on?

Surely, he works all week because he wants that buzz of playing come the weekend.

When he’s in his late 30s and is back in Spain, he will regret the time he wasted stuck on the sidelines. You are a long time retired.

It’s ridiculous. He needs to bite the bullet, get on with it and find himself a new club. He’s sat and watched for long enough.

Bournemouth will be another battle - we need to find a way to win

For the last 12 months, all we’ve known is that Martin Skrtel would be one of Liverpool’s centre-backs.

I think at times Rodgers had been too quick to chop and change things. Dejan Lovren got the nod ahead of Mamadou Sakho to start at Stoke and now he has to be given the chance to develop a partnership with Skrtel.

That has to be the combination for a run of games so they can establish a relationship between themselves and also with their full-backs.

Monday night’s home game with Bournemouth will be a different challenge to Stoke. Eddie Howe’s side will offer more as an attacking force and they have the tools to cause a few surprises.

Ideally, you want to go to Arsenal on the back of a resounding victory but I don’t think we’re at that stage.

It’s going to be another battle where we need to find a way to win.