A fuzzy haired footballer, much criticised for his antics on the pitch, has played for two of the fastest rising clubs of the 21st century.
Between 214 miles, he has won 12 major trophies and love of fans from far and wide. Though at last, after returning back to what he calls his ‘home’, at long last, it seems that the critics are finally ready to shower praises on him.
An array of silverware, a series of swerving free-kicks, commanding headers and somewhere between them was that day, that fateful day in the Belo Horizonte, where the skies seemed too dark for a hopeful future.
But this man fought back. He watched and learned. He resisted the urge of parading up the pitch and making clumsy decisions. He became a true leader and so it had to happen that when he came back to Chelsea, it was ‘the leader’ he replaced, John Terry.
Some credit of making David Luiz into a force to reckon with should go to the disciplinarian, Antonio Conte. The Chelsea head coach has managed to take a despondent side on an 11-game winning streak and by the looks of it, the streak isn’t going to stop any soon. We are seeing a different player altogether in Luiz, under Conte. He recently spoke to Sky Sports about his new head coach:
I think when you understand the plan and the philosophy of the coach, it’s much easier. It’s like when you’re at school and you love to do something, you’re in the advanced class. That’s the key. We love football, we understand the philosophy, we have a connection with the manager and this connection gives us confidence. He’s a top manager.
The 29-year old Brazillian is taking initiative and leading from the front. He is no longer a liability and his finesse on the ball is pivotal to quick movement on the pitch.
The cross-field balls find their man more often than not and the overlapping full-backs relish in this feast of deliveries. It has been a momentous transformation and can be crucial to Chelsea’s seemingly successful campaign. Rather than comparing him to other elite defenders in the league, we should compare him to the ‘Luiz of old’. The matrix clearly gives proof a rejuvenated Luiz under the Chelsea of 2016.
Through each passing game, people are expecting a typical-Luiz debacle but that moment has so far been elusive. What the future holds for Chelsea and Luiz, no one knows but at the moment one thing is for certain; Luiz is a happy man and as he would say, “If you are happy you are a geezer” and a geezer he is.
