Douglas Luiz has been a key member of Aston Villa’s squad this season but the time has to come to drop him.
On the chalkboard
Villa are currently battling relegation and sit 19th in the Premier League, two points away from safety.
Luiz, a once-capped Brazil international, has been integral to the team that Dean Smith has built at Villa Park and has played in all but two of the club’s league games this season, missing clashes with Arsenal and Burnley.
While he has scored three goals and registered two assists, his statistics prove that he is struggling in the centre of the pitch.
Per WhoScored, he averages 1.3 shots per game and just 0.4 key passes. While he does average 0.9 dribbles, he is dispossessed 0.8 times per game and takes 1.3 unsuccessful touches.
Defensively, he makes 1.1 tackles per game but is dribbled past 1.4 times, while he also concedes 1.2 fouls, somewhat rendering his contribution redundant.
Add into that a passing accuracy of 83.7% from 31.4 average passes – meaning he completes 27.4 passes per game – and one sees that this is the not the midfield player Villa desperately need.
Drop him
The time has come to leave Luiz out of the side.
He often plays alongside Marvelous Nakamba in midfield but one has to feel that Conor Hourihane could well do a better job.
Indeed, the Irishman makes fewer fouls than Luiz, is dribbled past far less, and is a more accurate passer of the ball, per WhoScored.
It would not be a difficult switch to make and it would also add some greater solidity to the club’s midfield, allowing Jack Grealish to do his business further forward without having to track back and muck in.
Did he really play for us?! No Villa fan has managed to name all of these obscure Villans….
It must be mentioned that Luiz is just 21 and he has room to improve.
But at this stage, he needs to be taken out of the firing line for the foreseeable future – that’s if and when football resumes.
Meanwhile, Villa could do their rivals a huge favour with this summer swoop!