Why Chelsea's success this season hinges on leader David Luiz
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Updated 21/08/2017 at 10:10 GMT
The season's opening week has shown both the best and the worst of David Luiz. Dan Levene on a man who will be key in deciding the Blues' success or failure.
David Luiz of Chelsea and Christian Eriksen of Tottenham Hotspur battle for possession during the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea at Wembley Stadium on August 20, 2017 in London, England.
Image credit: Getty Images
Stunned. A spectator. And proving much of what Gary Neville says about his PlayStation credentials correct.
That was Luiz in the opening 45 minutes of this season: at home to Burnley and, in a tribute to his nadir against Germany in the World Cup, watching foray after foray pass him by.
Contrast that with his Wembley display against Tottenham: relocated to midfield, and with a boundless energy which broke-up opposition play like the very best.
The Geezer's most predictable trait is his sheer unpredictability.
Last season he was arguably the Premier League's best, and most consistent centre-half.
This time out, he has a way to go to maintain that claim.
Many will have been delighted to see him in the middle of the park against Spurs.
There is a small, but vociferous minority who have always claimed it as his position.
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Chelsea's Michy Batshuayi looks dejected after scoring a own goal and the first for Tottenham as Chelsea's David Luiz puts his arm around him
Image credit: Reuters
Here he benefited from the novelty value of the whole thing: Mauricio Pochettino's side didn't seem to anticipate his altered role, and then weren't so sure how to play him when it happened.
That was the plan all along, of course: with Antonio Conte being clear, pre-match, that this wasn't his preferred role for the Brazilian.
Don't, therefore, expect Luiz to suddenly be recast in a different form: this is not a Victor Moses at wing-back moment.
More a case that, as with Moses, Conte values his versatility. Both he, and Chelsea, like players who give more than one option.
Other than Thibaut Courtois, and possibly the ultra-specialist N'Golo Kante, who in that Wembley XI hasn't been tried in a secondary slot?
Conte knows he can call on Luiz to do that job again one day, but he will use him as a defender whenever he can.
That's because, despite his occasional frailties, he adds experience and calmness to a back three unit which could do with a shot of both.
Chelsea's other defensive options all tend to be elevated in their performance by the presence of those traits.
Many forget that the defensive unit is, more than any other part of the team, reliant on players working in harmony to achieve a common goal.
Here, one man's failings can so easily drag the man next to him down.
It may be sacrilege to mention in Chelsea circles, but this was often the case in John Terry's latter days with the club: looking statesmanlike and assured taking play forward; but lacking the speed to track back, and exposing his fullbacks as a result.
Possibly the best example seen in recent years of this comradely defensive arm around the shoulders came for the Blues at Anfied.
In a game better remembered for that slip, and Demba Ba's opportunism, Tomas Kalas managed an impressive debut due, in the main, to the generous cover provided by Branislav Ivanovic next to him.
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Chelsea's Tomas Kalas (R) challenges Liverpool's Raheem Sterling (Reuters)
Image credit: Reuters
Luiz does the same thing so well – to the extent that on the rare cases where he lapses, as against Germany (and Burnley), the results are almost immediately catastrophic.
And while many call for his advancement to midfield as a means of releasing space in the side for Andreas Christensen: the young Dane's best chance of advancement is surely with Luiz's support, rather than as his understudy.
The ex-Borussia Monchengladbach man is a case in point to back-up that Kalas example: while experience is not gained without managerial risks, there have been clear examples of him inadvertently dragging down the performance of those around him.
Luiz copes with such demands admirably – arguably better than either Gary Cahill, or the otherwise mostly unflappable Cesar Azpilicueta – and this is one of the main reasons why his future has to be in defence, and not midfield.
At 30, Luiz is really now coming into his own: great defenders don't really fully mature until this point.
At Chelsea, his influence on and off the pitch is huge.
And, as we have already seen, Chelsea's success and failure this season will to a large extent be dictated by the way he copes with the challenges thrown his way over the next nine months.
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