I think defensively Luiz has been poor this season. Christensen on the other hand has been marvelous and reads the game almost as well as our recently departed Captain. 

 

Luiz does however have a much better passing range being able to spray it out into the wings. Christensen seems to play accurate short passes. This is why i reckon Conte chose Luiz as he'd be able to pick apart Palace, obviously this wasn't the case in hindsight and we could've done with a better defender on the day.

4 hours ago, Stim said:

His passing range has not shown to be a patch on Luiz at all. I know you really like him but lets not exaggerate to prove your point. More solid defensively yes but he has not shown to be a very attacking passer of the ball.

I said starting attacks, not passing range. Luiz's passing range is quite good, but Andreas' playing out of the back and under pressure, specially his composure on the ball and rotation of the ball is as good. 

Luiz also is a lott better at taking the ball past the first line of pressure, with the limited passing range of Bakayoko and Kanté this is usually quite critical and a huge part of the way we play. As said in hindsight it was the wrong call, as we had Fab dropping quite deep and Andreas defensive skills would have been handy. Was a weird game to be fair, whole team looked completely disinterested and even the ever present Azpi had a stinker. 

14 hours ago, didierforever said:

So out of 8 PL games, he did not play 2, started one as a DM (which is what I would start him as until Kante is fit and/or Drinkwater is back from rehab), out of the left 5 games, he was literally pathetic in 2 and got a red in the 3rd. I dont know how you see it as one game.  Mate, I also dont know exactly how you came to the conclusion from this that he is our most important defender. As far as everton was concerned, they were pathetic. Playing after the europa league on thursday, they just seemed out of gas and i dont think Luiz's impact can be bigged up to this extent. 

Christensen is as good in starting attacks and his reading of the game in each of his outing has seemed imaculate. 

Azpi has had one poor game, Luiz has been hot/cold and back to his playstation defender mode since the start of the season. 2 very different things.

Let's not forget Atletico too. Although he conceded a stupid penalty, he was excellent in that game. Was also key in setting up the move for our first goal. I like Christensen a lot but I do think some people are overrating him too much. He is a brilliant prospect and is good enough now, but he is not better than Luiz. And my point regarding Luiz, is that he stands out more than any of our defenders when top of his game. Luiz was our standout defender last season and arguably the best CB in the league. It is not going to be 2 little games to drop him out the team. He is an important player.

On that note, good to see Christensen starting tonight.

10 hours ago, STATS said:

Let's not forget Atletico too. Although he conceded a stupid penalty, he was excellent in that game. Was also key in setting up the move for our first goal. I like Christensen a lot but I do think some people are overrating him too much. He is a brilliant prospect and is good enough now, but he is not better than Luiz. And my point regarding Luiz, is that he stands out more than any of our defenders when top of his game. Luiz was our standout defender last season and arguably the best CB in the league. It is not going to be 2 little games to drop him out the team. He is an important player.

On that note, good to see Christensen starting tonight.

Mate, I think we have a difference in the way we assess a defender.

for me, a defender can do 100 things right, but make one critical mistake which would mean he f**ked up. And that's the point with luiz. All his good performances come with a caveat ( got a red, gave a penalty). I am sorry, but when a defender does that, he automatically becomes a liability.

imho, luiz was great last season but this season he has been back to his old ways - a ticking time bomb, which is not something you want from your central defender.

2 hours ago, didierforever said:

Mate, I think we have a difference in the way we assess a defender.

for me, a defender can do 100 things right, but make one critical mistake which would mean he f**ked up. And that's the point with luiz. All his good performances come with a caveat ( got a red, gave a penalty). I am sorry, but when a defender does that, he automatically becomes a liability.

imho, luiz was great last season but this season he has been back to his old ways - a ticking time bomb, which is not something you want from your central defender.

This is a very similar thing with Cahill. A lot of people on here try to defend him by saying he'll pop up with a goal or with a last ditch tackle every now and then but you always know he'll f**k up at some point and cost us a goal. I remember that Youlots bloke saying i had no footballing knowledge because i said a defenders main priority is to defend, not start attacks and score goals. They're just added extras that you look for. 

Slowly with Christensen, it's a young player, he can also make a mistakes, yesterday it's not his day, that happen to lot of players. Never forget his massive game against City. 

3 hours ago, Cyborg7 said:

Slowly with Christensen, it's a young player, he can also make a mistakes, yesterday it's not his day, that happen to lot of players. Never forget his massive game against City. 

We conceded 3 and it could have been more so I guess it was nobody's day yesterday but I wouldn't be too critical of Christensen who I though still had a good game.

Very unlucky with the goal where is deflected off him and Zappacosta and Azpi were at fault for that goal for letting Kolarov skip past them with such ease. The second was a great finish by Dzeko. Sure you can question Christensen's positioning, but again it wasn't as if he committed a howler. Our more experienced defenders (Azpi and Cahill) were more culpable for me last night and I did feel better once Rudiger came on too.

 

i dunno about zappacosta, he was defending pretty well throughout the game. it was azpi who has been a bit suspect recently. not going to start criticising him now though considering he's been a beast for us and plays all game, every game for us. 

Christensen has great potential but should not be a starter in defence just yet - Cahill, Luiz, Azpi and Ruediger come in ahead of him in my book. He wasn't the only one who had a bad night but his inexperience showed a few times.

11 hours ago, EmeraldBlue said:

Christensen has great potential but should not be a starter in defence just yet - Cahill, Luiz, Azpi and Ruediger come in ahead of him in my book. He wasn't the only one who had a bad night but his inexperience showed a few times.

Disagree. Even at his tender age he is making less mistakes than Cahill, Luiz and at present Azpi too (although he has been Mr reliable for so long it's hard to be too critical of Dave).

Christensen and Rudiger would be starting for me most games right now.

2 hours ago, Nibs said:

Disagree. Even at his tender age he is making less mistakes than Cahill, Luiz and at present Azpi too (although he has been Mr reliable for so long it's hard to be too critical of Dave).

Christensen and Rudiger would be starting for me most games right now.

We have to keep playing Christensen, he can't be wasted every other game on the bench, it's criminal. He will get better and better every game if he's playing.

 

Gone agrees with ME[emoji39]

Conte agrees with ME[emoji39]

On 10/20/2017 at 01:48, Nibs said:

Disagree. Even at his tender age he is making less mistakes than Cahill, Luiz and at present Azpi too (although he has been Mr reliable for so long it's hard to be too critical of Dave).

Christensen and Rudiger would be starting for me most games right now.

2nd this. Rudiger sprinting back for no reason other than dedication after missing a header has been a highlight of the season. 

Those two are out future, back 3 or 4.

On 10/20/2017 at 08:48, Nibs said:

Disagree. Even at his tender age he is making less mistakes than Cahill, Luiz and at present Azpi too (although he has been Mr reliable for so long it's hard to be too critical of Dave).

Christensen and Rudiger would be starting for me most games right now.

I would also play Rudiger and Christensen as much as possible, for me they are better then Luiz and Cahill atm.

15 minutes ago, comtrend said:

I would also play Rudiger and Christensen as much as possible, for me they are better then Luiz and Cahill atm.

Luiz our best defender today and after Bats would say he was our best player.

Needs to start every. Single. Match. 

Barring a monumental f**k up we will finally have a youth player come through the academy into the first team and starting 11.

What a talent!!

I think we should build the defense around him. He has done everything right so far.

Seems Luiz is not in the mood for leadibg our defense. I don't think Luiz will moan for long. I think he has a great attitude and will be the first to admit being wrong. Still Andreas should play all the time.

Plenty of open seats on the Christensen bus. Kid is going to be top class and perfect example of when loans go right. Add some muscle and he'll have every forward in the league in his pocket in no time. 

Superb today, let's see him grow and grow.

8 hours ago, TheChelseaBlues said:

Plenty of open seats on the Christensen bus. Kid is going to be top class and perfect example of when loans go right. Add some muscle and he'll have every forward in the league in his pocket in no time. 

He can already pocket some of the best in the league ie Kane, Lukaku and to some extent Jesus.

World class star in the making. Ofc it should be expected when last season in the Bundesliga he was being compared with Hummels.