David Luiz opted not to follow the rules and guidance of Frank Lampard. That mentality made him the problem child of the squad, which meant he had to leave Chelsea.
David Luiz decided to force a move to a local rival, Arsenal, just two days before the season started, a series of events that speak louder about his overall character than his actual career ever did.
Chelsea are never short of drama during the transfer window, even if the club has a ban hanging over its head. This time it was the most unexpected player of the squad, David Luiz. According to reports, the Brazilian had a falling out with Frank Lampard and skipped training as his representatives worked the move on the transfer window’s deadline day.
Luiz’s actions, which we now know started after the preseason game against RB Salzburg, exemplify his lack of professionalism and ability to be a team player. Instead of fighting for a spot, even if the odds were against him, he decided to join a rival team, completely washing away his legacy at the club.
Frank Lampard could not afford to keep a player who would cause discord in the dressing room. The one advantage Lampard has over any other manager in the Premier League is that he one of his club’s biggest legends ever. He is the definition of hard work, dedication and success. With the youth and loan army at his disposal now, he had no need for a player thinking himself of greater stature or importance than Chelsea’s all-time highest goal scorer.
Lampard can motivate his players by simply being in the dressing room and, this season, that will be half of what is required to succeed. If Luiz wanted to rule over the dressing room like he did last season, he met his match and, surely, that is one of the reasons for his departure.
From a tactical standpoint, Lampard knows the type of defenders he has at his disposals. After all, he has played with them or seem them grow at the club. He, better than anyone at the team, knows that anyone amongst Antonio Rudiger, Andreas Christensen or Kurt Zouma would be a starter over Luiz. Not only have they shown versatility in their play, but they can do the dirty work and are tactical enough to cover spaces, track runs and defend pragmatically: qualities Luiz lacks completely.
Therefore, if Luiz fell down the packing order, there were good reasons behind it. Knowing that his seniority would count for nothing, he obviously chose to turn his back and run away.
By pushing Luiz out of the squad, Lampard set the mark for everyone who doesn’t want to fight for a spot. Not every player has the same mentality, and so some choose to see if the grass is greener on the other side. Usually, those are the young players who are not getting enough minutes, and such thinking is acceptable since they are not established members of the club. But a senior member, who signed an unprecedented two-year contract extension in May, trying to turn his back on the club to gain leverage will only hurt the team in the long run, and Lampard did the right thing by giving Luiz the boot and showing him the door.
As it stands, there is a lot of uncertainty over the who will play and who won’t. Keeping a tantrum-throwing Luiz would have cost the manager his job in less than six months and opened the gateway for other players to do just the same.
Luiz was more determined to find a cowardly way out of the team than he ever was to stop a counter-attack on the field.
Chelsea are not losing anything valuable by Luiz’s departure since he is not the best of defenders and they have sufficient depth. The Brazilian has a poor reputation inside the field for not properly marking his man, not tracking back when players make runs from behind and often relying on other players to get the job done. Outside the field, he has been the face of the team and the go-to man when the manager is not available. But it is obvious that he tries to run the dressing room to his liking instead of abiding by the manager’s orders.
Ultimately, Luiz should have been out at the beginning of last season. But despite everyone’s best judgment, he received a vote of confidence from Maurizio Sarri last season and Frank Lampard this summer. In the end he finally manifested his intentions and became the ultimate problem for the team.
His departure was necessary, and it would have been ideal for him to do so in good terms. But now he leaves Chelsea having burnt his legacy with the club and the fans.