Douglas Luiz - coming back?

[chrisw1]

Hang on, he was excellent in our good run at the start of the season and pretty good right through to Christmas.

[paul_e]

he's also not been as bad as some people suggest since christmas. There have been 2-3 poor performances from him and then lots of 6-7 out of 10 performances in a team full of them.

[chrisw1]

Exactly.  I'm still very positive about Doug's future with us. 

[cdbearsfan]

Big fan of Luiz. People forget how young he is. Central midfield is a harder position to make an impact as a kid than, say, wing or centre forward, but he's consistently battled it out with some of the top midfielders in the country already and is only going to get better. Hoping that Man City's decision not to bung us a few quid to bring him back could be as stupid as when we refused to budge on Wolves's valuation for Robbie Keane.

[darren woolley]

I like Doug and I'm glad we have kept him by not activating the buy back clause he will only get better.

[PaulWinch again]

Big fan of Luiz. People forget how young he is. Central midfield is a harder position to make an impact as a kid than, say, wing or centre forward, but he's consistently battled it out with some of the top midfielders in the country already and is only going to get better. Hoping that Man City's decision not to bung us a few quid to bring him back could be as stupid as when we refused to budge on Wolves's valuation for Robbie Keane.

Yup.

[dave.woodhall]

He's about the same age as Gareth Barry was when he first played centrally under O'Leary (or it might have been Sir Graham) and that wasn't much of a success.

[rob_bridge]

He's about the same age as Gareth Barry was when he first played centrally under O'Leary (or it might have been Sir Graham) and that wasn't much of a success.

O'Neill turned him into an excellent CM was it not?

[Dante Lavelli]

Big fan of Luiz. People forget how young he is. Central midfield is a harder position to make an impact as a kid than, say, wing or centre forward, but he's consistently battled it out with some of the top midfielders in the country already and is only going to get better. Hoping that Man City's decision not to bung us a few quid to bring him back could be as stupid as when we refused to budge on Wolves's valuation for Robbie Keane.

Yup.

The formation didn’t help him last year.  He was often the sole midfielder behind the ball and the others rarely adjusted their positions to fill in when we were being swamped.  Barkley simply didn’t do it and McGinn, whilst enthusiastic, is not at his best when being asked to hold a a specific position.

[WarszaVillan]

He's about the same age as Gareth Barry was when he first played centrally under O'Leary (or it might have been Sir Graham) and that wasn't much of a success.

O'Neill turned him into an excellent CM was it not?

As I remember Taylor played him left-midfield, after being used in defense mainly, where he had some success and he played in the centre some of the time under O'Leary. But yes, it was MON who played him consistently in centre-midfield and helped turn him into the player he became. Before, he was starting to be considered a bit of a utility player.

[eamonn]

He's about the same age as Gareth Barry was when he first played centrally under O'Leary (or it might have been Sir Graham) and that wasn't much of a success.

O'Neill turned him into an excellent CM was it not?

Sarcasm?

[dave.woodhall]

He's about the same age as Gareth Barry was when he first played centrally under O'Leary (or it might have been Sir Graham) and that wasn't much of a success.

O'Neill turned him into an excellent CM was it not?

Sarcasm?

It's certainly how i remember it. He started off as a central defender or left back, moved into centre midfield and didn't do well there, went back into defence then O'Neill moved him-him back to midfield.

[eamonn]

Ah, mis-read it. Yes, until he was paired with Petrov (and a flier like Young to do all the running), he wasn't the imperial central midfielder he ended-up as.

[OzVilla]

On the bench for Brazil against Paraguay. Having just watch Emi the first get battered for Argentina watching Villa players playing for anyone other than England isn’t much fun.

[Risso]

Barry was exceptional in left midfield. It was the time when Sven was refusing to pick him, despite Barry being absolutely brilliant. I remember a game at Old Trafford when he made Beckham look exceedingly ordinary.