We have all heard the name David Luiz before and that name is usually followed up with ‘the most expensive defender’. But is this defender as good as people claim?
Throwback to Brazil verse Colombia in the 2014 World Cup quarter-finals. Thiago Silva scores in the seventh minute. Thiago Silva then receives a yellow card in the 64th minute meaning Thiago Silva is forced to miss out on the next game.
In the 69th minute we see David Luiz score an astounding 35-yard free kick and we see Brazil progress to the semi-final, albeit without two very key players (Neymar and Thiago Silva).
Semi-final, Brazil v Germany. We all know what happened in this fixture.
We see the first goal from Germany occurred due to a lack of overall defending from Brazil. Yet in the second goal from Thomas Müller, if you watch David Luiz closely he is literally ball watching. Marcelo the left fullback is in a better defensive position than David Luiz himself.
For Toni Kroos’ second goal, you must ask, where is David Luiz? He is a centre-back therefore why is he playing so distant to his partnering centre-back Dante? Once the Brazilians lose the ball David Luiz shows no urgency to get back and help.
By the fifth goal, Luiz’s positioning is just an absolute disgrace. It was a three-on-three scenario in which the Brazilian’s centre-back is absent. He is in a position where the centre attacking midfielder should be during this goal.
Goal number six we seen David Luiz again ball watching and for goal number seven the so-called Brazilian superstar completely loses track of Andre Schürrle.
Overall, quite a horrible performance from David Luiz, which leads me to suspect and question how good the former Chelsea player is.
Many can argue that the loss of Neymar led to the 7-1 loss but I find that interesting since Neymar is not a defensive player. None of his actions would have been able to stop any of Germany’s goals you would expect.
I believe the absence of Thiago Silva created a bigger problem for Brazil. As we know, both David Luiz and Thiago Silva have played together since they were children and they currently play together for French giants Paris Saint-Germain as the two first choice centre-back paring.
They are so dynamic together because of their history together. In this World Cup game against Germany, we saw David Luiz constantly out of position and being caught way too high up the pitch.
To me it seems Thiago Silva is almost a part of how well David Luiz plays in the centre-back position. If Brazil had played Dante and Miranda as the two center-backs and played David Luiz in the midfield then this game could have had a very different outcome.
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