Roberto Mancini may not succeed in luring Lucas Leiva to Internazionale this month but his interest has accomplished the often thankless task of demonstrating the Brazilian’s importance to Liverpool. It is not only Steven Gerrard who has the capacity to create an alarming void in Brendan Rodgers’ midfield.



The former Manchester City manager wants to add Lucas to his ranks at San Siro following the January signings of Lukas Podolski and Xherdan Shaqiri, although, despite reports of a £7m bid, there has been no official approach to Liverpool from Internazionale so far. Rodgers will be standing in the way should one materialise. It is a surprising stance given his past treatment of the 28-year-old and now a necessity because of Lucas’s influence on Liverpool’s recovery from the malaise that had enveloped the club and manager merely seven weeks ago.



“He is not one that we would want to lose in January,” the Liverpool manager confirmed on Thursday. “It is not something I would be willing to do in January. Of course at the end of the season everything is looked at again but the team is in a good momentum and a good flow. We are starting to find our feet and players are starting to adapt and work really well so I don’t need to disrupt them.”



There have been several factors at play in Liverpool’s tentative step forward from 12th and four points above the relegation zone after the 3-1 defeat at Crystal Palace on 23 November to eighth and five points adrift of fourth place following Saturday’s win at Sunderland. Rodgers’ bold switch to a 3-4-2-1 formation is chief among them, with Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana liberated by a solution to both Liverpool’s defensive and creative problems, and the first signs of why the club paid Benfica £20m for Lazar Markovic have been instrumental, too. However, there at the core, unfussy, uncomplicated and unheralded as always, stands Lucas.



Rodgers conceded that his job could be in jeopardy after Liverpool’s latest demoralising experience at Selhurst Park in November. His response upon leaving Croydon was to end the adaptation process for a few summer signings and revert to those he trusted to dig Liverpool out of trouble. “I felt I needed to go back to what I knew from the players who were here already after the Crystal Palace game,” the manager admitted. Lucas was recalled and Liverpool have lost only one of 13 matches since – the 3-0 defeat at Manchester United in December when the defensive midfielder sat on the bench throughout. It is the only game Lucas has not started post-Palace.



Internazionale’s interest in the midfielder, who remains under contract at Anfield until 2017, has sparked inevitable debate over his value to the Liverpool team. Appreciation may have soared in comparison to the judgment on Lucas’s early Anfield career but for some his reliability – he ranks top at Liverpool this season for the average number of tackles won per game, interceptions and possession – will never be enough. Rodgers’ admission that Lucas’ position will be reviewed in the summer hardly amounts to a glowing testament from his own manager.



More important than polarised opinion, however, is the contrast in Liverpool’s results with and without the Brazilian’s defensive cover.



Rodgers’ team have taken 11 Premier League points from a possible 33 without Lucas in the starting lineup this season, winning three, drawing two and losing six of the 11 games. In the 10 league games with Lucas in the side Liverpool have collected 21 points from 30, winning six, drawing three and losing one – West Ham away. Liverpool last lost a game with Lucas in the team on 4 November, at Real Madrid in the Merseyside club’s short-lived return to the Champions League, and last gained a point in the Premier League without him on 25 October in a goalless draw at home to Hull City. They conceded an average of 1.5 goals in the 12 league games up to and including Palace and one per game on average since.



An out-and-out defensive midfielder was not a priority for Rodgers last season when Gerrard was allowed to flourish in the playmaker role by Luis Su·rez’s movement and the pace of Daniel Sturridge, who is due to return from injury later this month. Yet, with Lucas’s involvement often limited under the Liverpool manager, it was strange the club did not sign a proven player for that role during their £117m summer spending spree.



Emre Can was acquired as potential from Bayer Leverkusen and has had to wait for an opportunity to arise at centre-half to impress. Jordan Henderson and Joe Allen would be the remaining options should Lucas, as Mancini perhaps hopes, push for a move and follow Gerrard out of Liverpool before the start of next season. Central midfield will have to be addressed this summer regardless of Lucas’s future following the captain’s decision to leave for LA Galaxy, but the loss of two experienced heads in that department represents a sizeable risk for a club that has struggled to land top talent.



“We never really played with a defensive midfielder last season, we played with a playmaker,” explained Rodgers. “When you change, not the style, but the system, it requires different things and when you need a defensive midfielder Lucas has come in and done that job well. The two central midfielders have been vital for us because it requires a lot of work for them both. It requires Lucas and Jordan or whoever is in there having to fan out to wide areas of the field to block while others were covering.



That gives the flair and creative players the chance to play. I have spoken to Lucas but we have had nothing (from Internazionale). He’s just enjoying playing and he’s playing very well.”



How much longer he is playing very well at Liverpool, however, remains open to question.