Antonio Conte has effectively just confirmed every Chelsea fan’s worst nightmare by revealing he plans to play David Luiz as a centre-back.
The Brazilian returned to Stamford Bridge from Paris Saint-Germain in one of the biggest shocks of the summer, with the Blues shelling out £38million to bring him back – admittedly £12million less than what they sold him for in the first place.
Speaking to ChelseaTV, Conte said where he thought Luiz’ natural position was.
“I think David Luiz is a centre-back, he’s played a lot of games in that position,” he said.
“I know sometimes he’s played as a central midfielder but in my mind the idea is to utilise him in the right position which, for me, is centre-back.
That’s fine, except the ‘defender’ still needs to actually learn to defend, despite being 29 years of age. There were times at PSG when his passing was excellent and he had great distribution, hence why he was sometimes moved forward into the midfield.
It’s no wonder Conte might want to shake up his current partnership of Gary Cahill and John Terry, both of whom are painfully slow these days.
When Kurt Zouma returns from injury would have been the perfect time to do that, but instead he has brought in the hapless Luiz, so it remains to be seen how their defence fares.
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