Lucas Leiva ready to keep spirit of Steven Gerrard alive at Liverpool

For the first time since 1936 there will not be a local player in Red

Lucas Leiva speaks to Brendan Rodgers (Getty Images)

For Liverpool, this will be a very different Merseyside derby. For the first time since 1936, there will be no Scousers wearing red and for the first time in 16 years Liverpool will be preparing for it without Steven Gerrard.

The man who symbolised Liverpool’s spirit in so many of these encounters sent a message to Lucas Leiva, who has replaced him as the club’s longest-serving player, but before he departed for Los Angeles, Gerrard’s contribution was so very much more than just a text.

“With Stevie we could see during the week leading up to the derby that his emotions were different,” said Lucas. “He would be super-focused. He would talk a lot about the derby and tell us that he couldn’t be losing one. That is something I’ve picked up from him over the years.

Gerrard is now at LA Galaxy, of course (Getty Images)

“I have the same feeling right now how much it means to the fans and the players to win a derby. Of course, we need to keep his record and his spirt and, if we do that, we are going to be fine.

“This morning, dropping my kids off at school, people just wanted to talk about the derby. The guy who checked the gas wanted to talk about it. My boy, Pedro, who is four, said: ‘Dad you are playing Everton.’ I have been here many years and I understand how much it means and so do the likes of Martin Sktrel who has also been here so long.”

Of the 33 derbies Gerrard played since his first in 1999, just five were lost, the last of those in October 2010, a 2-0 defeat at Goodison after which Roy Hodgson astonished most onlookers by insisting Liverpool had played well. Hodgson’s stock was plummeting at Anfield and he had a little over two months left as manager.

How long Brendan Rodgers has should he lose his first derby is the day’s great question. Lucas talked of his manager supportively but added: “We can be all day talking about it but, if we don’t win on Sunday, it is worthless.”

Everton are favourites, not just because they are at home but because their last game was a rousing comeback from two goals down to win at West Bromwich Albion. Liverpool’s last match ended with the familiar sound of their being booed off after another vapid performance, this time against Sion, the seventh-best team in Switzerland.

Everton are uncomfortable favourites in a Merseyside derby. In April 2012, they played Liverpool for even bigger stakes, a place in the FA Cup final. Liverpool were floundering under Kenny Dalglish, who would be fired the following month, Everton looked smoothly efficient under David Moyes and took the lead at Wembley before blowing everything.

In recent years, the Merseyside derby has tended to be a fixture that has mattered more to Everton; a chance to get even with a club whose turnover and profile was vastly greater than their own but it is Liverpool who need a win more. Not since March, when a fabulous drive from Philippe Coutinho gave them victory over Manchester City, has Rodgers overseen a win over any team of real substance.

Moyes’s successor, Roberto Martinez, who was interviewed for the Liverpool job that went to Rodgers, has not won one of these fixtures and his statement that Everton were the underdogs on their own ground because of Liverpool’s “massive investment” sounded strangely defensive. Rodgers did indeed spend heavily in the summer but none of that money went on acquiring a footballer remotely capable of filling the void Gerrard left behind.