The Douglas Luiz Thread | Page 30 | Vital Football

The Douglas Luiz Thread

I think he's been disappointing when compared to his form after the restart and in the early part of the season. When football returned especially he was brilliant, as far above most of his teammates as Jack normally is and he was a major reason we stayed up.

This year he's not quite hit those heights but he's been nowhere near as bad as some would like to make out. He's still been our best midfielder for the majority of the time. I still think he'll be a top player whether its for us or someone else. I don't know much about this buyback thing city supposedly have but I do remember reading that Pep was furious at having to sell him and really likes as a player.
 
danvilla2 said:
Given the quality of the opposition I thought the midfield was the bare minimum of acceptable. I didn’t overreact after the Citeh game for the reality that they are levels above us, but I was underwhelmed a bit yesterday with a few in the midfield. I thought we lacked leadership in there too when Sandwell were putting pressure on us, which is a bit of a theme. No-one can seem to put their foot on it or just calm everyone else down through a bit of organisation
Click to expand...
But who does "put their foot on it" in the age of the high press? The Tesco bags harried and hurried our team front to back as we did theirs. We had 70% possession so *someone* must have had the ball and I remember Douggie on it as much as anyone and remember him making key tackles and passes, albeit with a few times where he gave the ball away.

The quality of the opposition was a team fighting for its life whose quality going forward has hurt better teams than us. Put someone in better form than McGinn next to Luiz and he would look better in turn.
 
JW1985 said:
This year he's not quite hit those heights but he's been nowhere near as bad as some would like to make out. He's still been our best midfielder for the majority of the time.
Click to expand...
Platypus said:
But who does "put their foot on it" in the age of the high press? The Tesco bags harried and hurried our team front to back as we did theirs. We had 70% possession so *someone* must have had the ball and I remember Douggie on it as much as anyone and remember him making key tackles and passes, albeit with a few times where he gave the ball away.

The quality of the opposition was a team fighting for its life whose quality going forward has hurt better teams than us. Put someone in better form than McGinn next to Luiz and he would look better in turn.
Click to expand...

This.... and This....
Look at the best defensive midfielders in the game today and none of them are the hard-nosed tough tackling types of yesteryear. I can't ever remember seeing Kante or Fernandinho ever crunch someone. It's more a question of pressing and positional intelligence. The "message sending tackle" is confined to history (unless you're that blond twat from Burnley)
To me, if there's concern about our midfield it's more to do with the overall balance. McGinn is not consistent and gives the ball away far too much, whichever role he's playing. Nakamba is more of a pure defensive type and takes up the same part of the pitch. Barkley is soft and not putting in the work (although he was tiny bit better against the Tesco bags).
I do think that Sanson was brought in to eventually become that box-to-box midfielder that will provide the balance between Luiz and whomever becomes the more attack-minded "number 10". Then we may see a better balance....
At 22 years of age, Luiz has his best years far down the road ahead of him. If Man City activate whatever clause they have then he's gone, but if not I hope we persevere with him and by 25-26 we'll have an outstanding midfielder on our books....
 
Silhillvilla said:
One theory I have thought maybe he's learned Ci£y won't be activating the buy back clause and he's become unhappy with the situation and we've seen his form really tail off.
Click to expand...

Well maybe he aint as good as "he" thinks he is. Largely inconsistent, gets stupid booking and has recently (like most Villa players) been giving the ball away.
I watched the Man City v Chelsea semi the other day and City gave the ball away and it merited a comment, I thought we do that 20 times a game!
 
Yep, can’t disagree that he is giving away stupid fouls . But I said this a while ago that more than a few times the fouls he has given were due to his team mates giving the ball away needlessly and Luiz was caught the wrong side and is having to come through or round the player to make a tackle .
 
Thought he's been fairly poor recently. I'm sure it's something to do with the colour of his head job.

But let's see how he does next season. A break might do him the world of good.
 
When Luiz came back from the lockdown last season he had improved considerably. I think he needs a proper DM with him in midfield to free him of those responsibilities and let him get forward more. That shot of his has disappeared from his repertoire.
 
Thinking back to his home debut v Bournemouth last year , we saw the best and the worst bits of DL encapsulated in 90 mins. Now we only are seeing the bad bits mostly. Maybe he is being played out of position, doesn't seem strong or reliable on the ball/in the tackle enough for me as a DCM
 
I just don't think modern deep-sitting midfielders actually need to be strong in the tackle in the same way that they were even ten years ago. I know you don't agree but Luiz has been good in long patches at interrupting, diverting and hurrying their players through the middle and forcing them out wide or to check back. Against WBA he was doing that from our box right up to theirs and was spraying some good passes up and out to our three behind Watkins. As much of a legend as they were, a Makelele or De Jong-type player is really a bit of a relic.
 
Platypus said:
I just don't think modern deep-sitting midfielders actually need to be strong in the tackle in the same way that they were even ten years ago. I know you don't agree but Luiz has been good in long patches at interrupting, diverting and hurrying their players through the middle and forcing them out wide or to check back. Against WBA he was doing that from our box right up to theirs and was spraying some good passes up and out to our three behind Watkins. As much of a legend as they were, a Makelele or De Jong-type player is really a bit of a relic.
Click to expand...

I agree mate, all players these days have to be able to play football even the keepers. The big gangly and the hard man defensive midfielders are being phased out.
 
Pangloss said:
He really isn't doing as badly as some are making out.
Click to expand...
Playing better than McGinn that's for sure, he's a good player, too good for us in reality. We need to add quality around him. I thought that from game one he's a level above in his thinking and skills, far too good a footballer to be playing defensive midfield for us at the moment. He doesn't trust his teammates and I can't say I blame him.
I keep having to remember he isn't 23 until next month and he's played less than 100 games for us. He's not on form at the moment but who is the alternative. Marv who I also think is a decent player but on his day Luiz is a level above.
I'd play both and give SJM a break that he needs
 
Villan57 said:
Playing better than McGinn that's for sure, he's a good player, too good for us in reality. We need to add quality around him. I thought that from game one he's a level above in his thinking and skills, far too good a footballer to be playing defensive midfield for us at the moment. He doesn't trust his teammates and I can't say I blame him.
I keep having to remember he isn't 23 until next month and he's played less than 100 games for us. He's not on form at the moment but who is the alternative. Marv who I also think is a decent player but on his day Luiz is a level above.
I'd play both and give SJM a break that he needs
Click to expand...
It's a point I've made before but Luiz is the only central midfielder who has shown he can actually excel at this level, McGinn has never shown that, but Luiz is the one copping most of the criticism. If people can't see a quality player in Luiz then they frankly don't know football as far as I'm concerned.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.