Why Chelsea should sell David Luiz

David Luiz has been the subject of increasing speculation in recent months linking him with a move away from Chelsea. In the summer Barcelona and Bayern Munich were keen on the Brazilian and it appears that they are looking to renew their interest in the defender during the January transfer window.

Chelsea’s first choice centre-back pairing appears to be Gary Cahill and John Terry. Luiz has started just seven games at centre-back this season (making a further appearance in midfield). Luiz is lauded by some, but his defensive contribution is arguably a lot worse than his rivals. Luiz has only won 48% of his total duels this season, significantly less than Mourinho’s first-choice centre-back pairing Terry (65%) and Cahill (68%):

David Luiz’s appearances this season

Further to this, again in a purely defensive context, Luiz makes just six defensive actions per game, less than Terry (9) and Cahill (8). Even Branislav Ivanovic and Cesar Azpilicueta average more defensive actions per game than the flamboyant Brazilian, despite being full-backs, with seven per game. In purely defensive terms he is probably the weakest of the three main centre-backs and this is why he rarely gets an outing against opposition with a considerable attacking threat.

Many onlookers hail Luiz’s technical side of the game, but in that regard he is arguably not as good as we’d think averaging just 81% pass completion. However, that percentage could be driven down by the defender’s penchant for risky passes when he breaks out of defence and into the final third. Like the defensive actions and duels, this is significantly less than his team-mates. John Terry completes an impressive 90% of his passes with Cahill completing 87%. Again, both of the Englishman generally play more reserved balls out of defence.

David Luiz is Chelsea’s weakest defender from the old fashioned sense of the word. His surprisingly poor success rate in the duels he contests is quite worrying, especially as he regularly steps up to try and win the ball, often giving away fouls in the process.

That being said, he does still have a lot to offer, especially if Jose Mourinho continues to use him in centre-midfield at times. Selling him in January without bringing a replacement in would be risky and even if they did bring someone in, it would take time to bed them in. Perhaps, if Mourinho is unconvinced of his abilities he should wait until the summer and offload Luiz then.