Is Luiz Torres’ answer to missing Alonso?

I am writing this article because Torres and Liverpool had Gerrard and Alonso who would play him those killer balls into the final third to run onto and score. Over the past few months many of us have been shouting and screaming for Luiz to play in the Pivot role as he seems to play much better there and is more effective on the game. When he plays there it seems like he has played there the whole of his playing career and seemingly slips perfectly there.

Pro’s
Luiz has quite a few Pro’s about him playing in this position:
1. His passing ability and range is one of the best in the team this season, it reminds me a lot of Lampard’s passing with vision and precision
2. He is strong in the air
3. Strong in the tackle
4. Has a crazy amount of stamina giving him the ability to run up and down the pitch
5. If he messes up and loses the ball there are 2 centre backs behind him to cover him
6. Like we saw in the game against Swansea, when a CB pushes forward (Terry for the first goal) Luiz has the defensive knowledge to drop into the hole created to cover that player.

Cons
The only Con I can really think of is that he does sometimes go walk about and loses concentration but that is rare nowadays and has really matured into a professional.

I do believe he is more suited for the pivot than playing in defense he seems to be caged as such and can not release his full potential in centre back.

Who would he play with?
We have seen quite a few different combinations in the Pivot role this season with Ramires, Mikel, Lampard, Oscar, AKe and Luiz all having played in the pivot

Lampard
In the past few games we have seen the combination of Lampard and Luiz over the past few games and I have been impressed with it. They have seemed to have clicked instantly and have a great understanding for eachother and cover eachother well. They both like to attack but they have both seemed to do an equal shift of defending and cover along with attacking.

Ramires
Ramires is an engine and Im not to sure these two would be good but I have been proven wrong before and I can see this possibly becoming a good partnership as Ramires endless running and and Luiz passing and vision they could become a deadly two.

Mikel
I think these two together could be a great partnership. With Mikel short passing, great interceptions and great cover of the defense you could add Luiz range of passing, strong tackling and running ability. These two could make the perfect partnership. They are both also good in the air, can read the game well and both are strong.

Oscar
I do not believe these two could play in the pivot together as Oscar does like to attack as does Luiz so this may cause trouble. I could be wrong though.

Ake
I could see this being a good partnership as Ake is just really a smaller, left footed Dutch version of Luiz. He is calm on the ball, good at tackling and has some passing talents. He has impressed this season with some strong performances, he played the full 90 of the Middlesborough game and rarely seemed to be fazed by it all, then has had a few strong substitute appearances.

I have added who he should play with because if you watched Alonso it did depend on who he played with to how affective he was going to be and if he wasn’t playing with the correct type of player he wasn’t as strong an influence on the game.

Could Luiz actually do it?
I think that Luiz would be able to do the Alonso job as his passing and vision are impeccable and he seems to always look for Torres when he is playing. Alonso did this for Liverpool and played a ball over the top for Torres to run onto. I think Luiz could do this for Torres with ease, we do have Lampard who is the Long range pass master but he is used to direct long passes into the striker Torres likes them around him and for him to run onto. If we look at Luiz’s assists to Torres they are mainly all long balls over the top for Torres to run onto.

Now Torres strived off these balls at Liverpool and I think he could do it at Chelsea, Rafa is doing the right thing with Luiz and playing him in the Pivot to play these balls, he can do it at Centre Back but just not as effectively. So all in all I do think Luiz should play in the Pivot and all the Players we have at Chelsea and that are all on our books who can play in the Pivot could play alongside Luiz with ease maybe apart from Oscar who I think would have to adapt his game massively for a deeper-lying role. I think he could do it but it will take him some time.

Do you think Luiz could play the Alonso role for Torres?