New Arsenal signing David Luiz has been speaking about the defeat to Liverpool and what Arsenal need to do to turn themselves into title contenders.
The Brazilian was to blame for at least two of the goals in the 3-1 defeat and singlehandedly destroyed any chance that Arsenal had of leaving Anfield with something.
He basically goes on about the mentality of the team and claims it is not just about him.
“We have to [improve],” said Luiz. “I think if you concede a lot of goals you cannot fight for the title so this is one main thing we have to think about and try to reduce and try to make the team stronger.
“It is not just about me, it is not just about the defenders, it is about the mentality of the team. I think the team already did great against Newcastle, did great against Burnley to understand the kind of game we were playing for.
“We were clinical in Newcastle with one clear opportunity. We scored and don’t concede.
“With Burnley, we were clinical to understand the game. It was always to play first ball, second ball, fighting, they try to score with free kicks and things like that and we did amazing.
“[Liverpool] I think it could have been a different game if we scored [first] but we did not and this is football. Football is like that. Every week is a new history and we have to try and learn and improve our game.”
Luiz added: “I think I am just trying to bring here what I did in the last clubs I play for, trying to make everybody believe we can do some big things.
“For me it is about the end, it is not about the beginning. In the end, you are going to make the counts and you are going to see what went well and what did not and in this period we have to try and improve.
“This is the mentality for life. I think in life you have to be able to learn every single day.”
Nice words but the former Chelsea man leaves out one key ingredient that Arsenal needs to do to improve and that is for Unai Emery to drop him with immediate effect.
From the minute he signed for Arsenal I have consistently stated that he is a liability, he is a terrible signing and should not be allowed anywhere near the first team, he is literally the biggest waste of £8 Million I have ever seen from a club.
That may seem harsh but I have absolutely no time for him, it took him just two games to wreak havoc and it is not as if it was not expected from him and trust me on this, it will happen time and again.
Even Mustafi is a better option in defence than Luiz because no matter how bad the German plays he has not inflicted such damage on his own side in a single game as what Luiz did against Liverpool.
Within two minutes of the second half, he gave away a crazy penalty and totally rendered all Emery’s half time team talk irrelevant.
Emery needs to bring Chambers back as a matter of urgency not because he is a brilliant defender but because he is more reliable than Luiz it is as simple as that.
No, I don’t think so. He will improve after knowing the complicated strategy of the manager( sagir Mohammed)
Harsh but true. At least the part of about “singlehandedly destroyed any chance that Arsenal had of leaving Anfield with something”.
If a CB does a Luiz against a top team like Pool, it would take a miracle to get a result, regardless of formation or personnel
All our defenders are rubbish, period! Holding is the only CB I’d keep! Luiz made errors yesterday but if it wasn’t him it would be somebody else like every other trip to anfield. Sokratis and Mustafi were beyond a joke on our last trip there and Koscielny and Holding before that! Van Dijk does exactly what Luiz does and pulls back Pépé.. not even mentioned and yes Luiz was skinned by Salah but how many defenders has he done that to? I’m not saying Luiz is what we need but to put the blame solely on him absolutely not.. Emery is to blame he bought him and selected him it’s all on the manager.
And if I remember correctly the last time we had chambers playing against Liverpool they scored 4 at the Emirates! We need to sign a centre half in January and then wait for Saliba.
Kev82, have you given it a thought how rubbish Van Dyke will look in our team in the defensive system Emery employed once again at Anfeild. I watched him and Robertson got skinned by Pepe the reason that didn’t lead to any was the combination of bad strike of the ball from him and the cowardly tactics employed by Emery. If we had attacked more maybe we would have left Liverpool with a respectable score line or a point. Even as bad as our game plan was we still scared them. Like I said no good defenders will function well in our defensive play. Non of our defenders have responsibilities given to them when defending corner kicks or free kicks, don’t cover for one another or shielded by DM and fullbacks don’t prioritize defending or run back to position when under attack, can’t mark, can’t tackle. In fact non of our players do instead shadow marking which means they are coached to defend that way. They all can’t have those common deficiencies.
Absolutely Mobella ? my point being is that David Luiz is being made a scapegoat for our defeat yesterday! We got beat because the manager messed up with his stupid diamond formation and Pépé missing clear cut goal scoring opportunities.. everyone is talking about Luiz pulling Salah in the penalty box but nobody mentioned Van Dijk pulling Pépé the only difference is that the ref decided to give Liverpool a pen and ignore the incident up the other end. Ok Liverpool deservedly won but fact is you get no decisions at anfield
Luiz will have his glory momemts against teams that allow Arsenal to come at them. He performs better when his team are trying to break a stubborn defence down because he is good at advance play and picking a good pass.
Writing him off so blatantly is, in my opinion, too hasty and unfair after just 2 games. Against Burnley, he had a reasonably decent game even with their long balls and directness.
If Arsenal had the depth, one could argue that you play Luiz only in the games that Arsenal expect to dominate possession with minimal pressure on the defence. Then he would be in positions to make those defence-spliting passes to the forward line
Well said corporateMan ??
Agree on your observation about Luiz’s attacking abilities
Had we used Chambers or Holding at Anfield, there is no guarantee that they would perform better than Luiz. No CB can withstand the opposition’s repeated attacks, if he is not protected by the players in front of him
I am an Emery’s supporter, but his decision to invite Liverpool into our half was plainly wrong. He knew that Liverpool are famous with their high pressing, to force their opponents to make mistakes
Holding and Chambers are both very weak in playing from the back and would have been badly exposed with Emery’s insistence to play from the back.
I don’t think there was a way not to lose this time. Liverpool are as good in attack as when they beat us 4-0, but even better defensively. When they play like Saturday, we need another 2 years before matching them at Anfield:
– improvement on AMN and Monreal
– improvement on our CBs
– Xhaka replaced with a faster MF with better awareness
– Pepe reaching peak form
I would like to see how Luis performs after a longer period of being integrated into the team and after he is given opportunities in place of Xhaka in midfield. Surely he wouldn’t have won the honours he has, if he was trash?
he is experience and calm..that is good for team…but pls do not repeat the stupid reaction in the box again..then we will benefit from him..
for sure, if auba and pepe scored that golden opportunity, nobody will blame luiz..because the game will be different..
100% agreed Mosha ???
Couldn’t agree more. Luiz is a laughable signing! Your defence is a shambles so we sign a CB who can’t defend! His signing is very similar to when Chelsea signed Morata. They needed a new striker to solve their goal scoring issues upfront, so they sign a striker that hardly ever scores. Figure that out?
Question for admin? Do all comments await moderation prior to being released on site? The reason why I ask is that all my comments take several hours before being posted. I realise that the time difference is an issue. However not being able to appropriately communicate with my fellow Gooners is frustrating and itd taking all the enjoyment out of this site.
I honestly don’t know why! My spam filter doesn’t like you for some reason. Perhaps try a different email address?
OZGooner, I had a similar issue and had to shorten my user name; however that doesn’t appear to be your issue.
Can’t judge Luiz’s performance just after 3 matches… Just isn’t fair to the bloke. Every player will definitely have their moment of madness … we just have to take the positives and their overall strength. Whatever said & done about our last match… Emery has to take the full blame for his bad line up selection. Laca & Toro had to start… it’s a no brainer… he got it all wrong from the start. Anyway, let’s move forward to the Spuds match… Hope he gets his selection right then and play his best attackers & midfielders for this MUST win match…
In the context of being an Arsenal player, I agree. Although it’s not fair to judge anyone after just 2 appearances, he has to be, and is being judged on his time in the EPL as a whole. He’s never been a great defender in our league. I am struggling to see how a poor defender, who won’t get any better given his age, is going to make the difference to an already poor defence?
Patrick agree, in fact Unai had 80 minutes of madness, to let Laca on the pitch with 10 minutes remaining. I expected a draw if PAL played, when I saw the team sheet, felt this would be a 5-1 battering, luckily it stood at 3-1. We have over 170 million of strike force and this clueless manager plays Guendozi and Xhaka, with Callebos on the wings!Another Arsene in the making.He knows we have a make shift defense with AMN,aging Monreal, wrestling great Socrates and callous Luiz, and instead of attacking we defend. I feel with the players available now, Arsene would have given us a more attacking and entertaining football.Draw or loose to Spurs, I feel Freddie should take charge and relieve us from watching this calamity unfold every week.No excuses this season, we do have a top notch mid field and attack, the onus is on the coach, not the board or ownership.
i wouldn’t mind Freddie taking over Emery and running the show but to be fair to Emery, he should be given another season to come good
His contract depends on the agreement of the Board/owner to offer an extension at the end of this season.
To be fair Luiz was marking VVD when Matip scored.
Arsenal quite rightly had doubled up on VVD but lucked out
when the ball landed perfectly for Matip who was free.
At the other end Pepe was in on goal but failed to score.
The sustained pressure and disappointment at not scoring
was too much for the whole team for goals 2 and 3.
Liverpool is = top team in the world,they were
at home and at full strength.
Arsenal away from home with 4 key personal missing
should have scored at least 3.
My assessment is that Emery has this team playing well.
A win v Spurs will see Arsenal top 3 at least.
Can’t complain about that in fact its worth celebrating.
I wouldn’t blame any of our players for yesterday defeat. The team was set up to lose and were subjected an avalanche of attacks so that mistakes was bound to happened. Maybe he wasn’t aware of where he was at the time and where were the players in front of the defence as that pass was made in front of our box. Van Dyke did similar think in both boxes but because it was crowded at the time it was difficult for the ref to see it. We need to change the our defensive system first and then see if the personal can improve.
Where you seriously expecting arsenal to win at anfield?
I reckon Luiz will come good and once
Hector Kieran Toreira and Mesut are
in harness we are going to go on
a long unbeaten run till Xmas at least.
If Luiz is going to be a liability in defence…push him up into midfield with Torreira & Cebellos. Let Soko & Holding/Chambers marshal our defence… worth a gamble I’d say
Playing Luiz and Sokratis together against Liverpool was not a good move, in hindsight. Chambers alongside one of them would have been a better option.
I remember when wenger will go gong ho yet same people will batch him..now Emery tried to be pragmatic and he still gets slated. If for anything he failed at yesterday was the late sub. Why wait so late. For all their crossings Leno and the defence dealt with it and I can’t remember how many shots on target they had. Adrian made more safe than leno.most of you are forgetting that our full backs are makeshift.ask yourself this question, will the big teams survive without their 2 main defenders out a long time.the difference I saw yesterday was they never gave up they kept on trying Gary Neville said it, he also said that with such performance we are sure to get a results away from home.
Had it been it was arsenal that lost against Newcastle hell will break lose..we should learn how to take a defeat and move on. Nicolas said it’s not as if arsenal played bad but the better team won.
I’m I disappointed yes because if we had scored our chances maybe we would have witnessed a different outcome, but no way I’m disappointed for them not trying because clearly they tried. How many teams will go to anfield or should I say for the past odd years how many games have they lost there..
Please let’s learn how to support the team not when we will all praisesbut the minute we lose, sack him,bin him blah blah blah.
Coyg..have a lovely week ahead.
Neville said the same and that there was no cause for despair and he is ex Manchester United.
Bloody hell, you’d think no one had ever conceded a penalty before!! Yes it wasn’t ideal, but it happened.. end of.
Luiz has moments of madness (we seem to have a few of those) but can also be really good..
I’ve said before about some teams get all the luck & Liverpool certainly are that.. that game has gone.. let them celebrate their 3 points.. shove them where the sun doesn’t shine as far as I’m concerned. I’d like to think of Sunday now… oh and Joelinton’s first goal for Newcastle ??
Spot on! A much bigger match to look forward to this Sunday. A MUST win at all cost!
Agree Sue and I think Luiz is far better than any of the other “clowns” who are supposed to be centrebacks.
The same thing can be said for Mustafi. Has great stats, great games even. Then does something stupid. Why does Luiz get a pass and not Mustafi?
How many times have we seen Mustafi do something stupid? I’m not saying Luiz is perfect, because we all know he isn’t. We’re 3 games in.. and if he plays a blinder on Sunday, the Liverpool game will be forgotten about (which suits me fine ?) Roll on Sunday!!
? Bravo Sue!
Don’t blame him for the third goal if he had fouled him he would have been sent off then 10 men against Liverpool they would have destroyed us
Luiz cannot and should never be blamed. The art of defending is a team effort.
If someone keen watched the movements of our midfielders esp. Guendouzi, you would notice that our mentality is just zero… That guy was practically “jogging around” without the ball…. No tackles, interceptions, headed clearances.. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
And our passing is just too slow for a team with ambition..
What makes others superior is there incisive, quick, purposeful passing that often yields many chances for the forwards…
Not this business of Luiz giving the ball to Sokratis, to Leno to Niles to Xhaka back to keeper….. (cycle continues); when will the forwards get the ball????
Luiz is all talk, just like a lot of our other poor players. He got exposed big time. Arsenal, keep looking at CB’s. The problem has not been solved.
Too over the top a judgement on Luiz by the writer. All of football knows he is accident prone, but who is not in our current defence at CB? Luiz does have height, pace and considerable passing ability and can be great in some games but woeful in others. Mustafi and Sokratis aka the lunger and the wrestler, are woeful in almost EVERY game, so Luiz is by any sane rationale a step up on them. I would bring back Chambers to partner Luiz and cannot wait to see both the other two clowns leave our club. Why not stop fooling yourself over the relative ability, or lack of it, of Luiz and put the blame where it properly belongs, on KROENKE, for preventing our talented and shrewd manager from bringing in a top quality CB or better still two of them, by withholding proper funds.