David Luiz

[OneMoSalah 8,774]

Graeme Souness criticizing Luiz along with Alan Hansen is a fucking regular occurrence. I hate both of them. Hansen was an slightly better than average CB who was glorified because he played for Liverpool when they were winning everything and Souness is a wanker.

Finding Luiz a partner who can play in sync with him is our problem. I quite like the look of what that Mamadou Sakho guy is doing at Liverpool, aggressive, strong, quick, although I don't think he'd be a good partner to Luiz as they slightly similar.

The points about the English or traditional back 4 in comparison to a more continental style of defending is spot on. Terry and Cahill prefer their fullback to tuck in to give them a sense of security as opposed to the continental style where defenders run out to close down/tackle/intercept etc.

[The_Flash 1,144]

It makes me sad Iike David

[robsblubot 3,498]

Graeme Souness criticizing Luiz along with Alan Hansen is a fucking regular occurrence. I hate both of them. Hansen was an slightly better than average CB who was glorified because he played for Liverpool when they were winning everything and Souness is a wanker.

Finding Luiz a partner who can play in sync with him is our problem. I quite like the look of what that Mamadou Sakho guy is doing at Liverpool, aggressive, strong, quick, although I don't think he'd be a good partner to Luiz as they slightly similar.

The points about the English or traditional back 4 in comparison to a more continental style of defending is spot on. Terry and Cahill prefer their fullback to tuck in to give them a sense of security as opposed to the continental style where defenders run out to close down/tackle/intercept etc.

very cool, thanks for the link!

Interesting discussion too and Neville is spot on about the cultural differences. In Brazil I can tell you, because I've seen, and heard it so many times, that if a player (any players from any position) is good enough he should move forward to help the team. It's just that simple. It's far more difficult to find players who have the creative quality to break defenses than the ones to defend well.

Again, the transfer market corroborates that view as defenders are far less valuable. Unsurprisingly, the exception being more rounded players like David himself.

What to do about it? Well, either Mourinho wants to create a system in which David can work or he must be sold while he's still highly valuated. I can see him becoming a dominant player at Barca because frankly he is already better than Puyol. And certainly better than Mascherano as a CB. I can many other team that could benefit from his style of play. Not sure Chelsea's Mourinho is one of them.

[Barbara 15,149]

Yep, in Brazil we see things in an attacking way, that's how we approach the sport, but normally that doesn't apply to our CBs.

In the history of football - at least recent that I had access to - no country produced better FB for the attack than we did because for decades we saw FB as attacking players (it's slowly changing now). For Brazilians a FB was made to attack, dribble, run and cross - defending is optional because that's why the double pivot and the CBs are there for. And our standards are very high. What you guys call good crosses by Iva and Bertrand we call rubbish most time. A good FB for us is someone that finds a player with their cross very often during a match.

On the other hand our double pivot has always been a defensive and holding zone until recent years when it became a need for those guys to have a good pass and vision. Not sure how many of you remember our 1994/1998 NT's but we had Dunga as a #8 and Mauro Silva as #5 and Mikel near them seems soft [at the same time our FB were Jorginho, Cafu, Branco and Roberto Carlos]. So we had the two CB and the two DM and those were the only guys responsible for defense in our view although of course FB had to press and follow opponents' FB, key word being press, not actually defend. The rest of our midfield was supposed to be offensive and only recently we stopped playing with two strikers. We've always played with a CFW and another striker and our #10 and #7 were supposed to be the most creative players in the field (sometimes the striker took the #7 shirt meaning the #11 would be the AM - believe it or not most teams in Brazil you can still tell the players' positions by the # of their shirt. Most teams have 1-11 lineups where 2 is a RB, 3 and 4 are CB, 6 is a LB, 5 and 8 are CMs or DMs and 7, 10, 11 are either AMs or a striker and the 9 is a CFW or a FW. The exceptions are normally players who came from Europe and got attached to a random shirt #).

So while it's normal for us in our culture to have a player move forward, it's not very common to see it in CB's like Luiz. What normally happens here is that guys that can attack will change positions and for example a CB will become either a CM or even an AM. There are way too many examples of players that started as CB, FB, or DM and in a couple of years were 'promoted' to a more offensive position depending on their original one. If Luiz was still in Brazil at this point he would already be a B2B easily. We don't normally like our CBs to venture into the attack - of course we won't bitch about it like people in England do, but we'd rather promote the players to a midfield position rather than use him as a surprise factor during the match.

Brazil took too long to accept that our style doesn't fit modern football anymore and the money injection our economy allowed in the past few years contributed to the change, otherwise we'd be happily playing 4-4-2 in the scenario I described above. General people here still have difficulties accepting certain changes modern footie brought, but they're much more open to a CM being creative and having a good pass than they are about a FB having to actually defend. People who follow European football are more than adapted, but most people in Brazil still only watch our domestic leagues and our continental leagues and for them some changes are still weird. It's actually funny talking to those people. But chances are if Luiz had stayed in Brazil (or had left when he was older) he wouldn't be a CB anymore... or at least that's my guess.

[bushman 2,043]

Here is another offensive player that Jose wants to mold into something he is not.

Does he need to adapt to stay at Chelsea ?

" I do not need to prove anything, " he says.

I tend to agree.

Even though, we had seen his defensive skills are not kosher, but he makes up for it by his offensive ones.

[chelseathebest 150]

I don't think he was bad this season. I think all of our 3 central defenders have been very good this season.

But I disagree with what some of you say that Luiz should be automatic starter. He has to fight for it just like everyone else.

I don't think that he is superior compared to JT or Cahill, so he should definitely not be cemented in the first XI.

[Barbara 15,149]

epic pic and hair are epic

[ChelseasMessiah 304]

Not a word from the media when he plays well, they can't help themselves when they can't stick a knife on his back time and time again.

Colossal performance, pace, passing and vision.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

World class performance today. Didn't put a foot wrong in today.

[ChelseasMessiah 304]

Indeed, him and Terry were superb. Mourinho got a few more of the answers he needed today.

Spotless defending and that pass to Torres in Mata's disallowed goal was mesmerising.

[NishC300 1,865]

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Traitor!

[ChelseasMessiah 304]

I almost hugged the telly when I saw that yesterday. I can't help but like Paulinho, the lad, who at 17, was getting stones and bananas thrown at him 24/7 on the streets of Lithuania, suffered from depression and now is where he is today.

The boy is a Spurs player but is a man of character, were that Bale being tugged by Iva in the first half in the box he would have thrown himself to the ground like the gazelle on ice he is to con the ref to get a penalty, Paulinho stayed on his feet like a man should. F**k Spurs but kudos to him.

[The Happy One 18]

cute!

[NishC300 1,865]

Why do commentators constantly critcise Luiz as being a poor defender? He plays regularly for the Brazilian side ahead of Dante. Luiz is our best CB IMO.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Simply world-class.

[Korea 734]

Simply world-class.

NOPE. But he was tied with Rambo as second best player on the field.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

NOPE. But he was tied with Rambo as second best player on the field.

Well since you said "NOPE", I guess that settles it...my bad.