David Luiz

[Kieran. 6,317]

I don't think he's that good as a midfielder yet, but a few more games under his belt and I think he'll be much better.

[Henrique 9,133]

Pretty funny,everyone outside the chelsea fanbase thinks that Luiz is an amazing DM,skysports gave him a 9 rating vs Norwich,goal.com gave him motm in the past 2 games yet here we dont really trust him, and rightly so.The thing is that he is a inconsistent midfielder.There are some points in which he looks like the second coming of Redondo and in other moments he looks like a clueless baller playing a sunday game with his neighborhood pals.

I say stick him as DM until Mikel comes back from AFCON, by that time we can make a proper judgment and see if he should continue there are stick him as a CB

Whos "we"? Perhaps the same people who were saying days ago that Cahill was so good that he was the perfect choice for next captain...a bunch of idiots is different from the Chelsea fanbase.

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

"...while Luiz, doing much vital ball-winning in advanced areas, ran the show – though his shooting needs a lot of work before it comes near the Lampard class."

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/match-report-david-luiz-carries-off-frank-lampard-impression-with-aplomb-in-chelseas-victory-at-norwich-8431475.html

Its nice to see this kind of review and compare to with some of hypercritical "fans" reaction, well these guys must be in 3 groups:

1- The ones that that were saying Luiz would never play well in the mid, and now they are just denying the fact they were wrong.

2- Those who believe Luiz playing in the mid is related with Lampard's fate, so they want to believe Luiz is shit in the mid and so we need more option in the sector, so Lampard is the answear.

3- People who hate Luiz and just want to keep trolling.

It's not hypocritical. Luiz was shit yesterday but because Norwich couldn't mount any attack, the fact that Luiz was often 25 yards away from where he should have been went unnoticed. He also had players go around him in the first 30 minutes like nothing because he didn't know where to be. His passing before Lampard came on was under 80%, his long balls were a very poor 3 for 7 and his tackling and interceptions were poor. (That part is usually good.) And as for "Ball-winning"? He had zero interceptions and 2 tackles. How exactly did he win the ball? The irony there is that he usually is a ball winner in a more defensive role because he's so good at reading the play and stepping up and intercepting the ball. As for being like Lampard in running the show? He was 3 for 7 on long balls. In the past two games, he's been 8 for 17. Lampard? 12 for 12. Luiz was our second worst player according to whoscored.com (the invisible Torres not surprisingly being the worst). Even without the stats, there is no way you can watch that game and think that he was good. Based on what? Two really good passes? That doesn't mean he's always going to be bad, he might play the same position and be great tomorrow, maybe he'll turn out to be a fantastic midfielder, but the people who refuse to admit when he has a bad game are just as annoying as the ones who refuse to see when he has a good one.

[Henrique 9,133]

It's not hypocritical. Luiz was shit yesterday but because Norwich couldn't mount any attack, the fact that Luiz was often 25 yards away from where he should have been went unnoticed. He also had players go around him in the first 30 minutes like nothing because he didn't know where to be. His passing before Lampard came on was under 80%, his long balls were a very poor 3 for 7 and his tackling and interceptions were poor. (That part is usually good.) And as for "Ball-winning"? He had zero interceptions and 2 tackles. How exactly did he win the ball? The irony there is that he usually is a ball winner in a more defensive role because he's so good at reading the play and stepping up and intercepting the ball. As for being like Lampard in running the show? He was 3 for 7 on long balls. In the past two games, he's been 8 for 17. Lampard? 12 for 12. Luiz was our second worst player according to whoscored.com (the invisible Torres not surprisingly being the worst). Even without the stats, there is no way you can watch that game and think that he was good. Based on what? Two really good passes? That doesn't mean he's always going to be bad, he might play the same position and be great tomorrow, maybe he'll turn out to be a fantastic midfielder, but the people who refuse to admit when he has a bad game are just as annoying as the ones who refuse to see when he has a good one.

Not sure what is hypocritical, what I know is you are a poster that is saying Lampard should stay and you even insulted a poster days ago who said Lampard wasnt missed by the time he was injured. You are part of the group 2, perhaps, and the fact you are talking about Lampard here only proves it. Stats and more stats, and only a die hard Lampard's fan would say he was better than Luiz in that Aston Villa game. Only an idiot would say Luiz was shit in game that even the motm (Mata) had only a timid peformance, if Luiz was shit, so 80% of the team were.

[Sheva. 5,373]

He had zero interceptions and 2 tackles. How exactly did he win the ball?

Mikel did all the intercepting, but i remember in the first half when he made a nice tackle and put Mata in on goal.

And all the part about positioning: Mikel was the DM while Luiz had the license to go forward. It was just like the game when we played Romeu and Mikel together, this time Mikel was the one able to go forward, but he didn't play nearly as well as Luiz did.

Imo some people are judging him too harshly considering he's only made 3 starts in the position, he has been doing well enough. Might not be ready to play against the big boys yet, but surely we have a good option against the lesser teams.

[Henrique 9,133]

Mikel did all the intercepting, but i remember in the first half when he made a nice tackle and put Mata in on goal.

And all the part about positioning: Mikel was the DM while Luiz had the license to go forward. It was just like the game when we played Romeu and Mikel together, this time Mikel was the one able to go forward, but he didn't play nearly as well as Luiz did.

Imo some people are judging him too harshly considering he's only made 3 starts in the position, he has been doing well enough. Might not be ready to play against the big boys yet, but surely we have a good option against the lesser teams.

Thats my point, and I really dont get it, he played well enough in his 3 starts and the team were solid in all 3 matches. Not saying this all related to Luiz, but thats a fact, so I really dont know why a bunch of these clowns are "juding him too harshly", some of them were the same people saying RDM was way better than Benitez and that the spaniard would not survive more than 5 games.

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

Mikel did all the intercepting, but i remember in the first half when he made a nice tackle and put Mata in on goal.

And all the part about positioning: Mikel was the DM while Luiz had the license to go forward. It was just like the game when we played Romeu and Mikel together, this time Mikel was the one able to go forward, but he didn't play nearly as well as Luiz did.

Imo some people are judging him too harshly considering he's only made 3 starts in the position, he has been doing well enough. Might not be ready to play against the big boys yet, but surely we have a good option against the lesser teams.

The attacking player does have the licence to go forward, but it's limited. His positioning when he was playing there was basically where Oscar was playing. We really played a 4-1-5 for most of the game. It's not only how forward he got, it's where. He went on the wings more than one occasion. You can't do that as a central midfielder. One of the reason this annoys me so much is how much people got on Lampard for going forward and in the entire time he's played in the pivot, he's never gone anywhere near where Luiz went and his positioning was never even remotely as bad.

[Sheva. 5,373]

The attacking player does have the licence to go forward, but it's limited. His positioning when he was playing there was basically where Oscar was playing. We really played a 4-1-5 for most of the game. It's not only how forward he got, it's where. He went on the wings more than one occasion. You can't do that as a central midfielder. One of the reason this annoys me so much is how much people got on Lampard for going forward and in the entire time he's played in the pivot, he's never gone anywhere near where Luiz went and his positioning was never even remotely as bad.

I was one of the people who complained about Lampard. I didn't care when he did it against the lesser teams at the beginning of the season, but he did this against Atletico in the super cup and they hit us on the counter every time.

Luiz has not played against any good teams yet, but he's also shown he can stay back - which he did when Mikel went off yesterday.

Anyway one of the reasons i like Ramires in the pivot despite his god-awful passing is his ability to track back when we lose the ball, he could be in the opposition half and still recover in time to help the defenders, great guy

[Land 331]

Zero interceptions?That's impossible,I clearly remember him making at least 2 that even lad to counters.

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

Not sure what is hypocritical, what I know is you are a poster that is saying Lampard should stay and you even insulted a poster days ago who said Lampard wasnt missed by the time he was injured. You are part of the group 2, perhaps, and the fact you are talking about Lampard here only proves it. Stats and more stats, and only a die hard Lampard's fan would say he was better than Luiz in that Aston Villa game. Only an idiot would say Luiz was shit in game that even the motm (Mata) had only a timid peformance, if Luiz was shit, so 80% of the team were.

No, Luiz was shit. Luiz performance in central midfield has nothing to do with Lampard for me. Lampard is likely gone and there is almost no way Luiz lasts in central midfield next year anyway. He's good as a defender, and he has a lot of problems in midfield.

And I insulted someone who made an idiotic comment about Lampard. One of the people on here who has no sense of history and treats Chelsea like their FIFA13 team There are plenty of people who don't think Lampard should be back, but to show no respect for him, to treat him like he's Boswingwa or Ben Haim, means you don't deserve respect.. And yes, Luiz was shit. And yes, Lampard was fantastic in the Villa game but he's not Brazilian so I doubt you'd notice.

@Sheva, but that's because Luiz was playing the Mikel role when Mikel went off. Lampard has never played that role so Lampard is always supposed to get forward. Early this year, he was probably making a run or two too many a game, but even his worst game being out of position, his positioning was much better than Luiz's yesterday. You can't complain about players A doing something then when Player B does it much worse, say it's good.

[Sheva. 5,373]

@Sheva, but that's because Luiz was playing the Mikel role when Mikel went off. Lampard has never played that role so Lampard is always supposed to get forward. Early this year, he was probably making a run or two too many a game, but even his worst game being out of position, his positioning was much better than Luiz's yesterday. You can't complain about players A doing something then when Player B does it much worse, say it's good.

And there is my point really. If he's instructed to play in the "Mikel role" then he will go forward less and there will be less discussion about his positioning.

He was asked to play a more forward role and perhaps went a bit more forward, but this is too be expected - this is the same player who leaves his CB position to join in the attack.

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

And there is my point really. If he's instructed to play in the "Mikel role" then he will go forward less and there will be less discussion about his positioning.

He was asked to play a more forward role and perhaps went a bit more forward, but this is too be expected - this is the same player who leaves his CB position to join in the attack.

I thought he was much better in the Mikel role to be honest. As I said, I don't think this means anything for his future. I don't think he's going to be a midfielder for us, but I don't want to really judge any player for at least 10 games at a position and a variety of different opponents both in quality and style. Maybe he'll be good next game, maybe he'll develop beautifully in the midfield, one game does not determine a players' fortune but he was poor this last one.

[JDY 1,290]

It's going too far saying he was 'shit' or had a 'terrible game'. The entire team didn't get into second gear, they didn't even need to. Norwich offered nothing going forward except the odd set piece. Their main threat was down the flanks and we defended that well with Cole & Azpil. At the end of the day we did what we needed to do and nothing more, anyone can look at the stats and form an opinion on a performance. Atleast apply a bit of common sense before doing so.

[Tomo 21,751]

"He isn't a midfielder."

Well he started his professional career as a midfielder... is currently playing as a midfielder...

He started his career as a midfielder but nearly got realized due to poor performances in that position.

I actually think Rafa has been clever putting him in against teams who won't attack us that much, but there was a reason he wasn't put there against Corinthians. CB is still is best position for me.

[JDY 1,290]

He started his career as a midfielder but nearly got realized due to poor performances in that position.

I actually think Rafa has been clever putting him in against teams who won't attack us that much, but there was a reason he wasn't put there against Corinthians. CB is still is best position for me.

Benítez started David Luiz in midfield against Monterrey in the Club World Cup semi-final but he moved him back to centre-half, where supporters have grown accustomed to seeing him, for the final against Corinthians. He said the reason was because it would have been too physically demanding to ask the 25-year-old to play twice in four days in midfield. His fitness programmes have been geared to his use at the back and Benítez and his staff feared he "would not have the same fresh legs and it would be more difficult" for him in midfield against Corinthians.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/dec/21/john-terry-david-luiz-midfield-chelsea