Date: 30th May 2014 at 2:44pm
Written by:

by Ross Mooring

“You were the love of my life…”

Oh David Luiz, you’re heading out of my life! From Captain, Leader, Geezer to just… geezer. A geezer about to be paid an extra MEP’s yearly salary every week to bling his way up and down Parisian boulevards and stroll around the Parc des Princes. I’m not sure Sideshow is too cut up about it and in a purely footballing sense, neither am I.

Luiz is a complete depiction of the modern footballer, yet utterly unique, mixing extraordinary all round football ability with unwitting commercial panache gleaned from a constant stream of tongue out, peace out selfies, goal of the season contenders and the curliest of curly hair too.

He has everything, yet at Chelsea it’s all kind of petered out. Luiz is still the same athlete – tall, strong and quick – and footballer too – technically strong if unorthodox, an eye for a tackle, pass and a goal and streetwise too – but at 27 his potential has started to give way to what he is, an inspiring blend of highlights, both cultured and kamikaze. Yet even looking at him now and fully expecting him to have an excellent World Cup, I still see a world class centre back in him somewhere, while others will tell you he has a future as an all round central midfielder (I don’t see that).

Luiz’s career at Chelsea started with a bang. He took the Premier League by storm in his first half season at the club in 2011 including an action-packed full debut at Fulham in which he overhead kicked a cross, knocked a Frank Leboeuf style ball over the top for Fernando Torres to squander and gave away a penalty in injury time, which he followed up with classy goals and displays against both Manchester clubs. His next season at the club didn’t start out as well, showing up what has proved to be an incurable rashness-cum-vulnerability at the back but the Brazilian eventually found form and was critical in Chelsea’s run to and winning of the Champions League and FA Cup. Last season under Benitez brought more of the same inconsistency and included two stonking strikes, a rocket shot from fully 40 yards out at neighbours Fulham and a left-footed bucket shot against Basel on the way to another European triumph in the Europa League.

Luiz the Defender

This season, in spite of Jose Mourinho’s early proclamation of Luiz as a centre back and not a midfielder, Chelsea’s number four ended up playing roughly two thirds of his game time in midfield, having been deservedly usurped by Gary Cahill in defence. In spite of the odd eye-catching, up-tempo display, his performances in central midfield weren’t up to much either. Luiz ended up finishing dead last of all 20 Chelsea players who played in 20 or more games, according to my year long ratings, with a score of 6.17. Statistically, he added just two assists and no goals to Chelsea’s attack.Centre-Back - David Luiz

The Brazilian started his season with a fine game in the Super Cup versus Bayern – performances in big games were never a problem – before going missing as Gary Naismith scored the only goal in Chelsea’s 1-0 defeat at Everton. A string of average to good games were then broken in Chelsea’s 4-1 home victory over Cardiff in October as Luiz absent mindedly allowed Jordan Mutch to nip in behind him to open the scoring. That was followed up with his involvement in a depressing 2-0 defeat at Newcastle – rating: 4/10 – in which he was beaten in the lead up to the home side’s second goal, after which Luiz didn’t see the field until the routine Champions League win against Steaua Bucharest in December. Luiz also featured in defeats at Basel and Sunderland in the League Cup and was simply making too many frankly stupid errors to justify continued selection at the back.

Luiz the Midfielder

David Luiz’s first game as a central midfielder under Mourinho came at the end of the calendar year in the Blues’ 2-1 home win against Liverpool. The Brazilian added energy to the centre of the park and played well in spite of picking up a yellow card for a shirt pull, something that occurred too often (11 yellow cards in 34 games). His next appearance in midfield came in mid-January in Chelsea’s 3-1 home win over Manchester united. The curly haired one set about disrupting United that day and was very successful in doing so, but gave away numerous free kicks and was fortunate not to be sent off for two yellow cards before the end of the first half.

David Luiz Then came arguably his best domestic performance of the season partnering Nemanja Matic in Chelsea’s outstanding 1-0 win at Manchester City – again playing well in a big game. Luiz stuck to his job sweeping up in front of the back four, allowing the big Serb to take City’s midfield and the game by the scruff of the neck. With John Terry injured the Brazilian returned to the centre of Chelsea’s defence without much acclaim for the win at home to Newcastle, draw at West Brom and defeat in the FA Cup at the Etihad in February.

Luiz didn’t feature again until the 6-0 home win over Arsenal a month later when he broke up play as Wenger’s men capitulated at the Bridge, after which he was substituted in the defeat against Crystal Palace at half time with the score 0-0.

Versus PSG

His parting gifts to Chelsea’s season – and possibly, his Chelsea career – were reserved for the Champions League with two massive games against his now prospective employers PSG. In the first leg, in spite of giving away the free kick for his own own goal, Luiz was Chelsea’s best player on the night, making up for the loss of Matic through ineligibility by playing with panache and consistent drive in midfield.David Luiz

His best performance of the season, and his only game above a 7 all year long, came in the second leg of the same tie. From my match report, in which I gave Luiz a 9…

“This is what you want to see more of from David Luiz who seems to come alive in the biggest of games, seemingly focused by the task at hand. Energetic, intelligent and his passing radar was switched on (for once); he covered so much ground that although he often played away from his inside right midfield position he got back to sit alongside Frank Lampard and even filled in at the back when necessary. Assisted Andre Schurrle for the opener, literally off his own back.”

Add in the French press’ reaction to the mauling of Arsenal – “Tornade En Approche!” – to Luiz’s games against PSG and you get some way to understanding why the Parisian Qataris are so willing to chuck £40m at Chelsea for his services.

Best of luck to Luiz if he does depart, but a big part of me wishes the adventure with our larger than life, forever smiling, forever hi-jinxing Brazilian would last a little if not a lot longer. And it has been an adventure.

 

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