David Luiz has now become an integral part of Arsenal’s defence. He has impressed Mikel Arteta as he has been ever present in the heart of Arsenal’s defence and now the Gunners are set to give David Luiz a new ‘one-year contract’ that will keep him at the club till the end of the 2021-22 campaign.
Some fans are not happy with Luiz being given another one-year contract as they are not satisfied by his performance in the last season and some don’t think of him as a presence in defence as are there have been many matches where he has lost himself & received some stupid red cards, which have eventually led in Arsenal losing the majority of those matches. He had a pretty good run with the starting of this year and recently against Leeds United gave a pretty good performance which led that Gunners to a 4-2 victory but it doesn’t seem to have increased the Gunners fans confidence in David Luiz and have questioned the Authorities as to why give him an extra year in the club. So, let’s look at the positives and the negatives of his one-year contract.
The Pros
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One of the main key factors to keeping Luiz is that he is one of the senior players on the team and many of his teammates adore him. He is the kind of player who is looked up to by everyone in the dressing room. He may have a short Arsenal career but has vast experience of playing in the Premier League with Chelsea and also winning big trophies. He was also an integral part of PSG who had dominated their league. He has also captained Brazil on the international stage. So, it just shows what kind of a player he is and why he is so vital for the team. Fans don’t seem to see this kind of presence as it is only felt by the team and every good team needs an experienced head in their squad.
Arsenal is one of the teams that have a lot of young players playing for them and David Luiz can be the one who is capable enough to mentor them as he has played with many great players like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Neymar Jr., John Terry, Thiago Silva, and Petr Čech and has faced many great players. So that experience can come in handy when mentoring Arsenal’s bright young talents for their future which will eventually lead to good prospects for Arsenal.
Other than that, in the game, he can contribute to the team in many options as to when a team is pressing high, Luiz can distribute in break lines when they are not very much accessible. And also, Luiz is pretty good in diagonal switches as a centre-back.
The Cons
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David Luiz is now 33 years old and is not getting anymore younger. So, hitting a consistent run of form will be tough and Premier League demands a lot of consistency throughout the season. The Brazilian is not the most physically fit player and if he has to perform well in the league, he has to have a long run of form, which will come when you can keep a good fitness level. Also, If he is to be in the team for one more year then he has to lead his team’s line of defence as he is the most experienced player around there, but as we have seen him till now, he has been recklessness and ill-disciplined sometimes that have cost Arsenal to lose some of their matches, so the fans can question his presence on the field.
Other than that, we can see that Arsenal has been terminating contracts of players who are above 30, older star players were removed or were not given a contract extension as Arteta was looking forward to making a young squad, moving into a new direction of future Gunners. But, extending Luiz’s contract means that Arteta needs a little more time for making his new squad.
Luiz is not improving with his game and he is still weak when it comes to one-on-one plays and now that William Saliba is making a come back to his side after having a pretty good run for OGC Nice in Ligue 1, he will be fighting for a place in the starting line-up. So, keeping him means that they will play him, and by doing this, they won’t be able to protect their “Big Project” as Saliba will demand a transfer to another club, probably to Nice where he will be getting enough playing time.
Whatever is said or done, One thing that we can confirm is that if he signs a contract extension then we can have a good idea of Arsenal’s future summer transfer plans, and also their plans for next season.
