Douglas Luiz

[Sulberto21]

In 4 seasons he's going to be the player of the tournament in the Champions League.

[AvonVillain]

Just one of the fantastic things about survival is the probability of keeping Douglas Luiz. Although reports suggest otherwise, I can't see him being bought back to City. He's under contract, and we don't need to sell. Turned into the best summer signing of the lot.

[Vive_La_Villa]

Might have a read back on the thread tomorrow to see who thought he would come good and who wrote him off. Always interesting to see different views on a player. 
 

For the record. I always said he was going to come good

Edited July 27, 2020 by Vive_La_Villa

[Vive_La_Villa]

On 10/01/2020 at 20:58, avfc1982am said:

I think he's going to be WC. Nothing I have seen as of yet leaves me to think anything else. Yeah he can ponder at times, get caught out as we've seen with all our players at some point. I just think there is something special with him. I think this season is going to be up and down for a few due to settling down but I think when he gets his big boy strength over the next year or two he's going to shift gears like Jack has. He's the second most comfortable player on the ball in the squad imo and that itself speaks volumes of his potential. 

You my friend know your stuff.

[KMitch]

5 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Might have a read back on the thread tomorrow to see who thought he would come good and who wrote him off. Always interesting to see different views on a player. 
 

For the record. I always said he was going to come good

I'll eat my words here.  I was definitely not impressed with him in the beginning and thought he would be a massive flop.  He just needed some time getting settled and learning a bit of English.

[Keyblade]

The recent crop of Brazilian players have always been criticized in a way that they lack the classic Brazilian flair of years gone by. Every time I watch Dougie, I see that flair. It's like he's playing at the park sometimes he makes it look so easy. Cheeky controls and flicks and things of that nature show he's just having fun out there but the best part of him is how hard he works and how switched on he's become. He can do all I mentioned but he knows first and foremost he's the sweeper and my word does he do that well.

[MNVillan]

8 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

The recent crop of Brazilian players have always been criticized in a way that they lack the classic Brazilian flair of years gone by. Every time I watch Dougie, I see that flair. It's like he's playing at the park sometimes he makes it look so easy. Cheeky controls and flicks and things of that nature show he's just having fun out there but the best part of him is how hard he works and how switched on he's become. He can do all I mentioned but he knows first and foremost he's the sweeper and my word does he do that well.

I think he’s the most fun player to watch on this year’s squad when he’s playing well. Has a flash of arrogance in a good way that lends itself to fun football.

[Tomaszk]

1 hour ago, Keyblade said:

The recent crop of Brazilian players have always been criticized in a way that they lack the classic Brazilian flair of years gone by. Every time I watch Dougie, I see that flair. It's like he's playing at the park sometimes he makes it look so easy. Cheeky controls and flicks and things of that nature show he's just having fun out there but the best part of him is how hard he works and how switched on he's become. He can do all I mentioned but he knows first and foremost he's the sweeper and my word does he do that well.

He's great. You think he's wandering into trouble half the time and he makes you look a mug with a dip of the shoulder and a no-look pass the other way.

You do that to your opposite man twice in the first 10 mins, they stand right off you not wanting to get done again.

Hey presto, he's now got some room to play in.

Edited July 27, 2020 by Tomaszk

[maqroll]

Nice to have a DM we can trust. His attacking skills are a bonus.

[Nigel]

He needs to be priority no.1 this close season. Thrash out a deal with city to remove that buy back option. Expensive but worth it.

However I feel that burst of form in that position may have sealed his early departure. Hope I'm wrong but there will be interest in him.

Our saving grace here may be city's wish to keep him for themselves as well as a relaxing of ffp (if that's true). They may deem it better to get another years experience with us before getting him back.

 

[AvonVillain]

On 10/01/2020 at 20:58, avfc1982am said:

I think he's going to be WC.

You think he's going to be toilet? Bit harsh!

[Zatman]

10 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Might have a read back on the thread tomorrow to see who thought he would come good and who wrote him off. Always interesting to see different views on a player. 
 

For the record. I always said he was going to come good

I said he would need time to adapt

Though at times I was critical but seems it was a language thing which is understandable and something people don't understand that these guys are just human 

[villalad21]

He looks so great when getting forward.

Still not sure if DM is his best position.

[KentVillan]

10 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Might have a read back on the thread tomorrow to see who thought he would come good and who wrote him off. Always interesting to see different views on a player. 
 

For the record. I always said he was going to come good

I believe I wrote some fantasy MOTD segment where Shearer and Jenas wax lyrical about him, but can’t find it.

There should be a few funny posts in this thread along the lines of “what is the point of Douglas?” / “what does he DO!?” which always made me chuckle.

A superb player who benefited greatly from the lockdown break. Shows the importance of giving players time to settle in - especially if they don’t speak English.

[Rightdm00]

4 hours ago, Nigel said:

He needs to be priority no.1 this close season. Thrash out a deal with city to remove that buy back option. Expensive but worth it.

However I feel that burst of form in that position may have sealed his early departure. Hope I'm wrong but there will be interest in him.

Our saving grace here may be city's wish to keep him for themselves as well as a relaxing of ffp (if that's true). They may deem it better to get another years experience with us before getting him back.

 

I swore I read somewhere the buyback is only for this season and next. 25 million this year and 35 million the next.

The good news is he still doesn't have the international appearances to justify a work permit at one of the bigger Premier League clubs so any sell would have to be outside the UK. 

The bad news, another season like this one, throw in a couple more international appearances and he could be gone. Whatever price City quote to negate the clause is probably not worth it. We have to many other issues to address this window. 

[Sulberto21]

On 12/07/2019 at 10:59, Farlz said:

 

We were told.

[Gillz]

Without his step up, i dont think we'd have stayed up! Incredible improvements and i hope he will only get better.

Real credit to the Scouting department on this one - it took a while but think we can all agree on his quality.

[AVTuco]

Must stay.

[MrBlack]

2 hours ago, Sulberto21 said:

We were told.

Scarily accurate summary. Especially about highlighting his best position when he hasn't historically played that role.

For us it could also just be an extension of the classic Sunday league trait of playing your best player in CM (adjusted to DCM as we have less possesion than the opposition).  He's so calm on the ball that anywhere else is wasting what he can offer to us. As we get better im sure he'd be fine further up the pitch, but we haven't reliably kept the ball from the CDM position for years (if not decades) and with Grealish only effective in the offensive role he naturally takes that position.

Rated him since day 1, would be a travesty to lose him. If we lose him and Grealish I will be fearing for our survival next season. Partly because it will be indicative of the fact we couldnt persuade them to stay, which would mean we cant hope to persuade players of better or equivalent quality to replace them. And also partly because even if we did, we're into another season of major overhaul to our squad. Fingers crossed we keep both of them!

[brummybloke]

18 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Might have a read back on the thread tomorrow to see who thought he would come good and who wrote him off. Always interesting to see different views on a player. 
 

For the record. I always said he was going to come good

Would be kind of pointless, he was utter dog dirt before lock down. Had no position since, no actual role, didn't tackle didnt head the ball and most of his flicks put us in trouble.

Clearly being given a strict role and told to keep things simple and stay infront of the defence, added in with fine tuning his English has shown in his return performances.

He now stays back instead of aimlessly strolling around, he keeps simple passes rather than 5 or 6 attempted flicks per game, he now goes for headers, tries to tackle and plays for the team rather than himself. 

 

That is why pre lockdown he was dire and post lockdown he was our most consistent player.

Edited July 27, 2020 by brummybloke