French journalist Julien Laurens believes David Luiz has returned to Chelsea a worse player than when he departed two years ago.
Chelsea re-signed David Luiz from Paris Saint-Germain on deadline day for a fee of around £30 million, having sold him to the French giants in 2014 for £50 million (The Sun) — a world record fee for a defender.
Antonio Conte was desperate to sign a central defender and turned his attention to the Brazilian after missing out on Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly and AC Milan’s Alessio Romagnoli.
Luiz helped Chelsea lift the Champions League, Europa League and FA Cup in his first stint at Stamford Bridge.
But the 29-year-old was often a liability, prone to numerous mistakes and howlers, worrying Chelsea fans of what to expect ahead of his second coming.
And Le Parisien journalist and BT Sport pundit Julien Laurens only enhanced their fears when he spoke about the move on BBC Radio 5 Live.
“He’s been a liability for PSG more than anything else,” Julien Laurens told BBC Radio 5 Live on Wednesday night.
“Everybody remembers the game he had against Barcelona and Luis Suarez, who nutmegged him twice, in the Champions League quarter-final and humiliated him at the Parc des Princes.
“He hasn’t improved at all since leaving Chelsea. He’s probably coming back a worse player than when he left.”
Laurens never held back, continuing to express why he believes the move doesn’t make any sense from his own experience of watching the player.
“I’ve watch him pretty much every weekend since he joined PSG, I can hardly remember four games where he was actually good, or very good maybe,” Laurens said. “He had some shockers.”
“PSG couldn’t believe their luck and I think first of all they tried to keep him because they had no other options and then they thought: ‘the money’s too good, we can’t turn that down, it’s impossible’.”
The Chelsea boss will be looking to fit Luiz into his starting eleven but where he starts remains to be known.
Conte could use Luiz in the heart of the defence with John Terry or in a back three with Gary Cahill too. He could even be put into midfield to partner the ever-reliable N’Golo Kante.
The defender arrives on the back of a horror show in PSG’s 3-1 loss to AS Monaco, in which he was rated 2/10 by French sports paper L’Equipe.
Could he improve and become a player that can be relied on to keep things solid? According to Laurens, that seems awfully unlikely.
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