Luiz furthers his DM cause

Luiz in DM would be sent off in the first 35 mins of every game. Until he matures more putting him in DM would be a terrible idea.

We have a far more mentally matured player for that position in Mikel.

To be honest I thought Mikel was excellent last night...

Spot on, his best game in a Chelsea shirt for me, and he was playing further up the pitch, as he does for his country.

Luiz is an odd one, maybe he is like the Kaiser was back in the day, or Socrates after him, maybe we might just need to stick him on the pitch and let him go, his creativity is there for all to see, his defensive qualities are still in doubt, that tackle was a poor one, and 1/2 second later it would have been a red card

As a gooner, I love watching Luiz going forward. However, when he is in his own penalty area, I half expect an error. I do not see him that often so I am prepared to be put right.

He reminds me of an England cricketer being picked for his bowling and who turns out to be a better batsman.

Luiz is not disciplined enough to play the DM role, Mikel has been good and showed more forward awareness than in previous matches

I would still have a midfield 3 of:

Ramires--Meireles--Lampard(Place untenable in the team)

Mikel stays on the bench,it's all good and well against Leverkusen but he will get murdered against Utd.
People are overrating his performance yesterday he wasn't that great,he kept losing the ball and was doing his usual sideway passes without really pressing forward,but was composed at times.

I don't know why scoring a goal, or even playing a good offensive game means a player should play defensive midfield.

It's just so counter intuitive.

Is it just me or is Brana becoming a bit of a bombscare at the back?

Think he should stay at the back.

Think you're being harsh CMF. If Miereles played like that you'd be singing his praises,

here's an interesting thread I found in my archives

in my opinion the only decent thing Rafa has done so far...

Sturridge was our best player that game