The season of reunion continues as Chelsea sign back David Luiz from PSG for reportedly £34m. Just two seasons ago Luiz had left the West London club for the glitz and glamour of Paris leaving Chelsea richer by £50m. But his former club have had to turn to him after facing multiple rejections in their various defensive pursuits. With the likes of Kalidou Koulibaly and Romagnoli failing to be prised from their clubs along with rejections in their approach for Stefan De Vrij, the Blues decided to turn to their former player.
Chelsea have been scouring the market for a long time in the search for of a suitable centre back and one look at their threadbare defence will establish why. With only 4 senior defenders to choose from, Conte was finding it extremely difficult to establish a balance to Chelsea’s playing pattern. With age not on Terry’s side and the uncertain form of Gary Cahill hindering his performance last season it was imperative to get central defensive enforcements.
And in came David Luiz to apparently solve Chelsea’s conundrum and re-join the exact defensive teammates he had left on his move to Paris. Antonio Conte expects his centre-backs to be involved in the build-up play. He prefers players who are good with the ball at their feet and are adept at releasing accurate long balls to facilitate counter attacks and release the attacking players. As evidenced by the success of Bonucci and Chiellini at Italy and Juventus.
By virtue of this transfer, David Luiz becomes the only defender to total above £100m+ when all his transfer fees are accounted for! He will bring much needed dynamism at the back and he is versatile enough to play in front of the back four in the central defensive midfield area. He can carry the ball out of defence and is a good dribbler. But as Chelsea fans will be aware he has been proven to be defensively susceptible and Conte will hope the player puts in the hard yards on the training ground as he looks to develop his game overall.
Twitter gave a mixed response to the signing though the Chelsea faithful’s fondness for Luiz clearly came through from the tweets.
@ChelseaFC It’s never boring when he is around.#LuizBack#KTBFFH pic.twitter.com/SkzkvF0wvp
— ♕ King Danny ♕ (@King__Danny) August 31, 2016
@ThePepEra @ChelseaFC I FUCKING LOVE YOU SO MUCH
— g (@fieId) August 31, 2016
@ChelseaFC Announce David Lu… oh ok fair enough. pic.twitter.com/Srv1AV3FnO
— Jimmy Shoey (@jamesfarrier) August 31, 2016
@ChelseaFC WELCOME BACK KING DAVID LUIZZZZZ
— – (@FalseNineRoIe) August 31, 2016
@ChelseaFC BRAZILIAN TITUS BRAMBLE
— fairly pleased (@OhReallyShaqiri) August 31, 2016
@ChelseaFC IVE GOT A BONER
— Jamal (@carefreejamal) August 31, 2016
@ChelseaFC pic.twitter.com/XP2Enc4Lhj
— M. Firza Richsan (@Firzarichsan) August 31, 2016
@ChelseaFC I have such mixed feelings about this!!!! I loved him and he also annoyed me to no end! Always out of position! Haha
— Stacie Dawson (@stacie_dawson) August 31, 2016
