bleed_blue

Choulo19 criticising Luiz for yesterday. Why am I not surprised having seen his posts over the last few days in this thread and the Mikel thread.

Turnbull started vs QPR on 2nd Jan and vs Reading on 30th Jan. We lost the QPR game and drew the Reading game. At least check the facts before you start mocking other people. same as my reply to choulo19, also Pathetic really.

Since 2nd February, we have won all our PL games that Mikel did not start (Wigan, west brom, west ham, fulham and Swansea) while with him we have won 1, drawn 1 and lost 2 in the same period.

Surely a versatile Essien will be preferred to an inept Mikel

@choulo19: That is some warped definition of tackling and being ponderous on the ball. Also you are unable to distinguish between always taking the safe route while passing vs playing possession football. I am out of this.

OK lets agree to disagree on that. The game I saw, we were creating chances and putting United under pressure in the first half as well, only the goals were missing.

About that ManU game, I dont think people want to admit that what changed the game in our favour was replacing Moses with Hazard. We conceded two very early goals (1 because of a worldly pass from Carrick) and after that we had a lot of chances to score. But upfront Moses was absolutely atrocious in the first half. Wrong decisions, poor crosses and some poor finishing kept us from scoring in that first half. Hazard came on, took things into his own hands, played with a purpose and we were back in it.

I will take a shot. First of all to me, Luiz at CB > Luiz at CM. However, current Chelsea squad with Luiz at CM > current Chelsea squad with Luiz at CB. So what I am saying is, Luiz is a better defender than he is a midfielder, but at the same time, he is Chelsea's best midfielder of the present options. Lampard has the passing range, footballing brain but what he lacks is speed and defensive workrate. Mikel on the other hand, passing range is very limited, workrate is very poor and is very ponderous on the ball. Luiz has the tendency to be rash and also tries to do too much sometimes that can end up costing us. But with that, you get a lot of upside. We have seen him play lovely long balls many times this season, he is always looking to make something out of our possession rather than just wait and ponder over the ball while the opposition gets back into shape (ala Mikel).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2013/apr/25/basel-chelsea-five-talking-points "To pick Mikel John Obi in central midfield rather than David Luiz is to strive for mediocrity. It is never admirable but is sometimes understandable, as the Brazilian has a skittish side that sporadically unhinges his team. Still, he brings so much more positivity and enterprise to Chelsea's midfield that Benítez deserves acclaim for coming up with the plan a few months ago and should be encouraged to use it more often. Performances such as this one in which he scored the injury-time winner should help that cause, as David Luiz provided a sturdy platform for he and his team to thrive on. He showcased a range of passing that the one-dimensional Mikel seldom even alludes to and more defensive fortitude than Ramires, who, nonetheless, did a far superior job shoring up the right flank than either Mata, Oscar or Eden Hazard would have done."