Chelsea Should Fight Tooth and Nail to Keep David Luiz

David Luiz was part of the Chelsea squad that departed for a four-match tour of the United States on Tuesday, and if Barcelona get their way the 26-year-old’s subsequent port of call will not be London, but rather the Catalan capital.

Their defense corps aging and undermanned, the Primera Division champions are looking to the Brazilian centre-back to help cut down their goals-against, and according to a report in the Daily Mirror new manager Gerardo Martino has included the Confederations Cup winner on a list of summer transfer targets.

Chelsea, however, should do whatever they can to keep David Luiz at Stamford Bridge. Despite being criticized for poor positioning and lapses in concentration following his 2011 arrival from Benfica, he enjoyed a superb second half to last season—a campaign that was capped off by a memorable 3-0 win over Spain at the Maracana.

It was hardly surprising that he was one of the stars of the tournament. After all, his play for Chelsea down the stretch was a major part in both the Blues’ Europa League triumph and third-place finish in the Premier League.

The three weeks overlapping the end of April and beginning of May revealed David Luiz at his absolute best. Over a stretch of five matches he found the back of the net three times—all of them match-winners; two of them coming in the Europa League semifinals against Basel. And over the course of the 2012-13 schedule he managed to post impressive numbers in more meticulous statistical categories as well. (All statistics courtesy WhoScored.com)

In 30 Premier League appearances David Luiz averaged 2.4 interceptions per match while clearing the ball out of danger an impressive 4.5 times in each outing. He was only beaten one-on-one by an opposition attacker on 16 occasions over the course of the season and was twice named Man of the Match.

On the offensive side of the ball he averaged more than 50 passes per match, and while his completion rate of 81.1 percent revealed some room for improvement he still managed to find attacking teammates with long-balls at least five times in every appearance.

As a midfielder he was equally impressive, particularly when deployed alongside fellow Brazilian Ramires. Requiring a pure stopper (and one with better tactical nous than John Obi Mikel) to allow him the freedom to move forward, Ramires played some of his best football with David Luiz by his side, and no doubt those performances will have him in line for some more midfield duty in 2013-14.

That is, of course, assuming Chelsea hold on to him. They’d be foolish not to, and it’s perhaps his most creditable feature that a club like Barcelona are so keen to get him in their shirt.

The Blues should do everything in their power to ensure that doesn’t happen.

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