Two weeks ago David Luiz had a bad game against Tottenham, and pretty soon the whole world was laughing at him. A video circulated on social media claiming to show that Luiz had been directly responsible for 64 per cent of the league goals Chelsea had conceded so far this season. That arresting statistic was picked up by the newspapers and recirculated and repeated until you might have thought that only a madman could have David Luiz in his team. Why was Maurizio Sarri still picking him – had some horrible creature laid eggs in his brain?
Or maybe Sarri just understands football. On closer inspection, the clip showed a few goals that certainly were Luiz’s fault. There was Anthony Martial’s second goal for Manchester United in their 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge, when Luiz tried to tackle Juan Mata and missed both ball and man. There was Andros Townsend’s goal in Crystal Palace’s 3-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge, when Luiz was attracted to the ball and forgot about the runner. There was Harry Kane’s long shot for Spurs in their win over Chelsea at Wembley, when Luiz seemed to flinch out of the way of the ball. These were all bad moments for Luiz. Every defender has his blooper reel.
Still, the video’s creator could only get to that figure of 64 per cent by framing Luiz for a few crimes he did not commit. There were goals that came from free-kicks that Luiz had given away. There were goals that came when Luiz was beaten after being dragged out of position by a team-mate’s error. Anyone who watched the video with close attention would know that Luiz had in no real sense been “responsible” for all of these goals.
But most people pay only superficial attention, and unfortunately for Luiz, he’s the kind of player who attracts a lot of it, because he has big hair. This makes him different, which is immediately provocative. And his visibility makes him a prime candidate for the culture of individual scapegoating that has done a lot to keep English football stupid over the years.
Big moments
I’ve always liked Luiz. By coincidence I seem to have been present at quite a few of the big moments in his career. The first time I saw him play was his debut for Chelsea in February 2011, but the first time I was genuinely impressed by him was the following month, in a 2-0 win for Chelsea against Manchester City at Stamford Bridge.
The Chelsea fans spent most of the game singing “One John Terry” in apparent celebration of the fact that Terry had just been given back the England armband by Fabio Capello. It struck me that although the Chelsea fans worshipped their “Captain, Leader, Legend”, Luiz was much the more inspirational figure. Terry showed his mettle that day by injuring himself tackling Yaya Touré and playing on through the pain barrier. Luiz drove his team forward and lifted the atmosphere at Stamford Bridge with a series of blocks, tackles and raking passes. With a few minutes to go, he headed the opening goal to set Chelsea on their way to victory. I came away thinking that Luiz had displayed a blend of technical skill, physical strength and on-field leadership that few other defenders could match.
Of course, a defender who takes risks is not to everyone's taste, and Luiz does have a tendency to go for the ball when he might be better off staying in a covering position. It was only a few months later, in November 2011, that Gary Neville famously described him as playing like he was "controlled by a 10-year-old in the crowd on a Playstation". It was a memorable zinger, if you ignore the fact that it didn't make much sense, since 10-year-olds are very good at video games. Maybe Luiz played like he was being controlled by a 45-year-old in the crowd on a Playstation.
And yet, I was at the game that had prompted Neville’s barb – a 2-1 defeat for Chelsea against Liverpool, in what was probably the best Liverpool performance of Kenny Dalglish’s ill-fated second stint at Anfield. Luis Suarez and Craig Bellamy were the Liverpool forwards that day. The first goal was an intricate blur of first-time passes and dummies between Suarez, Bellamy and Maxi Rodriguez that would have bamboozled any defence. Sometimes good attackers make good defenders look bad.
Calmness and confidence
The Chelsea coach, Andre Villas-Boas, rejected Neville’s criticism and predicted that Luiz would soon be universally hailed as the best central defender in the world. That never quite came to pass, but later that same season, Luiz was the defensive rock as Chelsea – without the suspended Captain, Leader, Legend – defied a vastly superior Bayern Munich to win the Champions League in Munich. Luiz transmitted calmness and confidence, not least with a brilliantly taken penalty in the shoot-out. It was the kind of big-game performance that seals a player’s reputation.
But nothing is ever that simple with David Luiz. Two years later I was in Belo Horizonte to see a Luiz-led Brazil defence shredded 7-1 by Germany in the World Cup. His desperation to undo Germany's early lead accelerated Brazil's collapse, as he made wild charges upfield, leaving gaps behind.
And yet to be in the stadium that night was to understand that he and all his team-mates had been caught up in a kind of national nervous breakdown, a mass emotional meltdown that was bigger than the game. The crowd at the Mineirão brutally rounded on the hapless centre-forward Fred, but neither he nor Luiz, nor any other single Brazilian, deserved to take all the blame that day. It was was the collapse and utter humiliation of a team that was simply unequal to the gigantic pressure of expectation upon it, and it felt as though nearly 200 million Brazilians had had a hand in the disaster.
The collective
This is something his manager at Chelsea would have understood. Unlike most of the people watching and commenting on English football, Sarri sees and understands football in collective terms.
He resisted the temptation to drop Luiz after his bad game against Spurs. On Saturday, when Luiz produced a man-of-the-match performance against Manchester City, helping to make the first goal with a superb 60-yard pass, scoring the second and holding City’s forwards at bay throughout, Sarri likewise resisted the temptation to get carried away.
In Sarri’s view, Luiz defended well on Saturday largely because the team defended well. “Of course, there are matches like this one in which it’s easier to stay in the defensive line. The defensive movements are working very well. And there are matches in which it’s really difficult to stay in the defensive line, like Tottenham, because the defensive phase of the team is a disaster. Today he played a great match, but all the team helped him to play really well.”
There is a section of English football that is determined to never, ever stop laughing at David Luiz, but as long as Sarri is his coach he will know that at least one person is seeing him clearly.
