David Luiz started against Everton last weekend, and ended the game with a 6.04 rating on WhoScored.
That was the lowest rating of any player in the game against the Toffees, and it was another black mark in the growing list of Luiz stinkers this season.
For every game that he dominates from the back against a week team spraying magisterial passes around with ease, he has another one like this, where the aggressiveness of the system combined horribly with his lack of discipline to cause goals at the wrong end.
This is how he plays, and we’re used to that. But in games like the one at the weekend, we see clearer than ever that it’s a back three or nothing for Luiz. We can’t continue to jeopardise our future by playing him in the middle alongside the equally shaky Antonio Rudiger.
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Sarri has no other options. But in hindsight, going into this season with those two plus the apparently untrusted Andreas Christensen as our options at the back seems ludicrously short sighted. The pursuit of several Serie A defenders as we approached the deadline – and again in January – makes a lot more sense now.
Then again, if the club were aware we needed new blood at the back, and just baulked at how much they would cost, shouldn’t the blame be on them rather than squarely or Luiz or Sarri, who are only doing exactly what we should have expected from them?
