Tbf, I don't think anyone of us thought he would be playing as he is. Not even those that were happy with him coming back expected him to perform as he has been since the change in formation. We have the best defense in the PL and probably in Europe.

I was very happy to have him back but even I couldn't imagine he would have this kind of an impact. He's been absolutely majestic.

Its interesting thinking back to DD in august. Didn't look like we were going to sign anyone but all of a sudden the reports of David Luiz heading to London starts emerging. People are first and foremost not convinced the reports are true at all and even fewer are convinced it would be a good buy from the club. Looking back though that one transfer there is probably the reason why we are on top of the table at the moment. Conte were able to change to his prefered formation, Kante could play in his prefered position and since everything fell into place.

So pleased he is back and really pleased for him that it is working out so well.Classy player and has matured as a person.We have a strong spine to the team once again.

Been pleasantly surprised by Luiz, I was happy to have him back as I believe our team lacked personality last season and thought his character and presence would have a positive impact on the team. In terms of his position I thought he would provide versatility to the team as he has the ability to play in Mid & I was secretly hoping Conte would play him in Central Midfield next to Kante but the way he has played in a back 3 it almost feels like he has been playing in a back 3 all his career.

The agenda against Luiz started because he bullied Rooney that night in the 2-1 win in 2011, United fans built some weird vendetta that the media picked up on and because 90% of the population is easily brainwashed by the media, viola he's a crap defender.

He's a very good defender that is prone to maybe a few more cock up's than he should be, and despite that the defensive stats in his first spell was a lot better with compared to without and with my own eyes i felt we looked better defensively as a whole with him in it. Although tbf him out usually meant Ivan was shoved in the centre and Bosingwa came in, which by default made our defense shaky.

As for the WC game vs Germany, he was awful, but so was every defender and midfielder that played in that first half bar Maicon.

7 hours ago, Imran_CFC said:

Been pleasantly surprised by Luiz, I was happy to have him back as I believe our team lacked personality last season and thought his character and presence would have a positive impact on the team. In terms of his position I thought he would provide versatility to the team as he has the ability to play in Mid & I was secretly hoping Conte would play him in Central Midfield next to Kante but the way he has played in a back 3 it almost feels like he has been playing in a back 3 all his career.

 

Maybe because he feels at home with Chelsea. I thought he was declining with PSG, of all the teams and leagues.

David really livens up the generic 'footballer with sick kid' photo.

 

 

(Respect to Willian for representing the club, you could forgive him for wanting to duck visiting a hospital after recent events with his mum).

 

 

Lovely gesture by all the team and Antonio. They look genuinely happy to be there. Must have cheered those poor kids up. Hope they all have a great Christmas. 

Any one else think that based on nearly every interview Luiz has done with British media , he basically thinks their a bunch of c**ts and wants to give them nothing. Smarter then he looks 

Extended Crazy David interview, not sure if it's been posted here yet.

 

On 12/4/2016 at 11:29, Charles Ryder said:

That joke isn't funny anymore.

Last Sunday, as Chelsea confidently dispatched rivals Tottenham to put the final touches to their now-somehow-legitimate title chase, one man stayed on the pitch longer than any other. From the final whistle he headed straight to the Shed End to celebrate with the fans after anchoring his team to their seventh straight win.

Eighteen months prior, the same man was celebrating wildly at the same end of the same pitch, scoring the goal that knocked Chelsea out of the Champions League, setting in motion the hilarious run of form and abyss of confidence that cost them their title, their dignity, and their most iconic manager.

His eccentric return to embracing these fans epitomises his role in turning around Chelsea's fortunes. Just a year ago Stamford Bridge was in revolt, labelling half the squad 'rats' and spreading the toxic vibe towards even the quieter, more kindly squad members, who'd just kept their heads down through the worst championship defence in living memory. Now, the fans love them; and they especially love him.

David Luiz defies easy categorisation, and always has done. A hero, icon, and future captain to some? Yes. A fraud and a d**khead to most? Absolutely.

The Chelsea fans who were delighted at the £50m the club got for his transfer to PSG would have paid double that to have him back in the cold, leaderless slump of their impotent title defence. Rival fans who laughed at the £32m the club paid to retrieve him from exile in Paris will now be looking at their own marquee signings and wondering what they’ve paid for.

 

To say David Luiz has been a revelation since he came back to Chelsea plays too easily into the hands of those who unfairly savaged him in the past. He plays like a “10 year old on a Playstation”, said Gary Neville. “He is a liability for his team”, said Jamie Redknapp. “David Luiz,” said your Dad, poking his Carlsberg sloppily towards the TV, “is a useless twat.”

These same pundits, now forced to joylessly praise him every week, are waiting with baited breath for the price of admission - the David Luiz Glaring Mistake. A howling lapse in concentration. A stray backpass. An alert striker - Aguero, probably - taking advantage of the moment and rolling the ball easily into the net.

But it hasn't happened yet. Five games pass; ten, fifteen, still no mistake. Six clean sheets in a row. Still no mistake.

 

Obviously, this ‘has-a-mistake-in-him’ cliché hasn’t come from nowhere. Luiz has made costly mistakes in his career. Watching him chase German players around the pitch like a wide-eyed sixth former who heard someone at the party has weed remains one of the most harrowing sights most of us have ever witnessed in football.

The 7-1 final score is remembered not as the flourish of a truly great Germany team, but the total collapse of a Brazil side which put an unreliable, overrated clown at the centre of their plans.

But what of the clown?

Twitter banter merchants and your mate Joel, definitely-coming-up-with-this-on-the-spot, reckons he looks like Sideshow Bob, from The Simpsons. And it’s funny, because much like Sideshow Bob, David Luiz is a clown, and a laughing stock, and a fool.

These people don’t know their Simpsons at all. It’s worth bearing in mind that Sideshow Bob went from clown to killer after one brutal national humiliation too many, leaving him deadly motivated to prove everyone wrong.

That brutal night in Belo Horizonte fixed David Luiz, and it fixed him by breaking him.

Gone is the Playstation controller that sent him launching out of position chasing air, leaving his partner stranded at the back; in its place stands a mature and calm defensive presence. This is what Chelsea paid for.

 

Everyone knows all stats are completely useless, but here's some that make him look really, really good: his average pass length is 24.44 metres, compared to John Stones' 18.36 and Joel Matip's 18.92. His pass completion percentage is only bettered among Premier League centre backs by Stones, who completes almost double the amount of passes backwards - 18.82 to 10.22.

Whatever a "Key Pass" is, Luiz hits a lot of them - 0.33 per game. Laurent Koscielny sprays out a big fat zero. Pathetic.

There are loads of reasons why stats are even more pointless than usual here; all the top teams play differently, expect different things from their defenders, and most good defending happens off the ball.

The main reason, though, is that this is David Luiz we are talking about - you can't put a number on what he brings to the team. An attacking focal point and defensive stability, yes, but also some form of on-field passion and leadership that hasn't been abstracted through several jarring layers of weird idolisation and a decrepit, creaking pair of legs (Apologies to Mr. Terry, J).

Luiz is agony, patience, and ecstasy bound to flesh. He'll smash a free kick straight into the wall and shut down the resulting counter attack in the same leap. He'll elbow someone square in the face and sprint off to make a vital interception before trotting remorselessly back to accept his yellow card. He'll carry you to your first ever Champions League title with his hamstrings hanging on in a state somewhere between 'devastated' and 'f**ked', then leave for Paris so he can play with his mate.

Nobody will ever understand David Luiz; not statistics, not pundits, not the strained and bleeding achilles of any striker who ever dribbles past him. This is fine. You don't need to understand why he plays like a mad, unrelentingly beautiful bar steward to accept that he is brilliant - you're allowed to just enjoy it.

Open the curtains. Let a bit of light into your life. Stop hating David Luiz just because the man on the TV keeps telling you to.

 

https://www.joe.co.uk/sport/davidluiz/100798

Apologies for bringing this from the grave, but this is such a poorly contrived article. The author invents a conspiracy ("the media hates him" - even though most media have been gushing with praise over Luiz's reform) and then hedges his bets by patronising the audience by saying we can't possibly begin to understand him because of nebulous "passion". Most hilariously, of course, rather than provide some argument of substance the author elects to appeal to tub-thumping populism - "Everyone knows all stats are completely useless". In my posts earlier in this thread, it was evident that statistically David Luiz was no worse or better than any other top-level CB. The statistics defied my own attitude that he was error-prone and a defensive liability and I simply couldn't find any statistical evidence to back those opinions up.

As a person who initially loved Luiz, but was extremely sceptical when he returned to Chelsea (see my earlier posts), I still remain to be convinced that anything has actually changed in Luiz's playstyle. The "I told you so" brigade have no doubt been quick to elevate Luiz firstly to the best CB in the squad, then the league, then the world and eventually the universe simply for doing his job to an acceptable level. I wrote a detailed post about the deficiencies in Luiz's game, particularly on @just and @g3.7's criticisms of him as a fundamentally poor defender. He lacks the technique to defend properly and this leads him to errors and compromised situations, his biggest weakeness being his penchant to chase after the ball-carrier rather than hold a position. 

I still think this very much the case, and the last few games (particularly Spurs, City and West Brom) continue to underline that for me he is a fundamentally poor defender. However, Conte's system and the switch to the 3-4-3 means that Luiz's inevitable mistakes are less consequential and I think this is where the real improvement originates. Luiz's inclination to step out of position is less of a liability when you have Azpilicueta or Cahill always sweeping behind him. For example, against West Brom, he was caught out of position on two occasions by Salomon Rondon but it was of little consequence as Azpilicueta and Cahill were available to sweep behind him, and therefore he could aggressively try and win the ball back. Conte's changes have meant that Luiz's innate deficiencies are minimized, and it is wonderful to see a manager opt for a tactical rather than a chequebook solution to Chelsea problems. Luiz can operate more freely and with less pressure because he is no longer the last line of defense.

8 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

I still think this very much the case, and the last few games (particularly Spurs, City and West Brom) continue to underline that for me he is a fundamentally poor defender.

 

What I remember against City was his MOTM performance, when we were under the cosh for large spells. If you remember, Dave (first half) and Cahill (second half) made horrendous individual errors which could have led to goals, Dave when he underhit a back pass and Cahill when he tried to shepherd the ball back to Courtois, unaware that Aguero was lurking behind him. Here's a few of his highlights from that day ..

 

 

On ?2016?-?08?-?30 at 22:35, Ernie_blue said:

Williams looks even more of a bargain at 12m now

I'm sorry but

9 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

for me he is a fundamentally poor defender

More clean sheets than The Dorchester says you are wrong.

 

Club captain next season? Thoughts? 

I would easily give it to him. However a small fear he will try once again play every position when team mates are struggling. Being captain that could become a problem.

6 hours ago, coco said:

More clean sheets than The Dorchester says you are wrong.

 

That doesn't mean that Luiz, individually, is a great defender. Given he still makes the same mistakes and has the same issues, it points to tactical genius on the part of Conte that minimises the consequences of his errors, rather than any earth-shattering improvement from Luiz.

10 hours ago, Davey Baby said:

 

What I remember against City was his MOTM performance, when we were under the cosh for large spells. If you remember, Dave (first half) and Cahill (second half) made horrendous individual errors which could have led to goals, Dave when he underhit a back pass and Cahill when he tried to shepherd the ball back to Courtois, unaware that Aguero was lurking behind him. Here's a few of his highlights from that day ..

 

 

Luiz was recently called the best defender in the Premier League. So far he's been absolute class and we're almost lucky that our chase of Koulibaly came to nothing! 

20 hours ago, Sindre said:

I'm sorry but

It was a good deal

14 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

That doesn't mean that Luiz, individually, is a great defender. Given he still makes the same mistakes and has the same issues, it points to tactical genius on the part of Conte that minimises the consequences of his errors, rather than any earth-shattering improvement from Luiz.

In a back 3 Luiz is perfect, great on the ball and can read the game well. That's why I am interested to see what Conte would do if Luiz gets injured or suspended.

Put him back in a 4 and we could see something different.

Problem with Luiz is he is too much of a team player. He wants to help everyone. He is so talented vhe could play other positions too which distracts him once and a while. This season he has been very focused. May that continue.

19 minutes ago, evissy said:

Problem with Luiz is he is too much of a team player. He wants to help everyone. He is so talented vhe could play other positions too which distracts him once and a while. This season he has been very focused. May that continue.

I can't remember a single blunder since he came back. At this point, 18 games into the season, it would be almost normal for a defender in his position to make some significant mistake. In my opinion, he would therefore have to commit at least two big mistakes/own goals/you-name-it to live up the reputation of being notoriously unreliable. Let's hope it won't happen. He seems to have matured a lot.

 

That ball was something incredible! Another good performance by Luiz, well done!