‘This is Douglas Luiz’s house’ read the Sky Sports tweet after the Aston Villa midfielder broke the deadlock in our 4-1 win over West Ham on Sunday, as he continues to run the show in Unai Emery’s side.
The 25-year-old made it six consecutive Premier League home games in which he’s now scored, and while that decisiveness in front of goal is crucial, we all know how deep his influence runs even when you take those goals away.
READ MORE: What Emery said in assessment of brilliant Villa win vs West Ham
For years we saw a player pushed into a deeper-lying role that didn’t particularly suit his game, thus limiting his impact and highlighting his previous defensive deficiencies to play that specific position.
It was obvious that there was more there, and more so under Unai Emery, we’re now starting to see just how good the Brazilian midfielder is with his ability to dictate, control and pull the strings as the heartbeat of this Villa side.
Aside from making the most final third passes of any players on Sunday with 22, he also completed the most ball recoveries with nine, and so his influence is felt in both phases of the game as he works brilliantly in tandem with Boubacar Kamara to impose our presence in midfield and play the Emery way.
The Villa boss has continuously stressed his desire to control games more consistently, to dominate possession and dictate tempo to limit the opposition’s ability to hurt us, while being measured and patient in our approach to successfully and systemically break them down over and over again.
Emery praised Luiz in his post-match interview, but the Spanish tactician knows just how good he is and how much better he can still be, as he demanded more from Luiz and pinpointed where he felt he wasn’t quite good enough during a key period in the game.
It was also interesting to see one of his assistant coaches deep in conversation with Luiz even as they made their way back out onto the pitch after the half-time interval, as so much runs through the Brazilian in terms of the way we want to play and dominate, with Emery often seen, and heard, barking instructions to him in-game.
“It’s credit to him [Luiz], firstly. He has to be demanding in everything and he is doing. I am very happy with him,” he said, as per BBC Sport. “But I think he can do better. There were some moments after he scored the two goals where we were trying to control the game and I wasn’t happy because he was too relaxed.
“We have to see where we can improve in everybody. I was very demanding off the players to try and score another goal. After the third goal we controlled the game.”
That mentality and drive to be as good as he can be and for the players to reach their maximum potential will undoubtedly build a winning mindset, and Luiz continues to prove that he will be a driving force in this Villa side moving forward.
Aside from the goals, the technical ability, vision and passing range, it’s his tactical intelligence, awareness and positioning to be able to scan the pitch, to be in the right areas to dictate in midfield that is seeing him emerge as such a key figure for us.
It’s a joy to watch Luiz produce at such a high level, and it’s hoped that he continue to improve and develop as he will undoubtedly be a pivotal part of our ongoing pursuit of success.
🇧🇷🟣🔵 Douglas Luiz goal….#avfc #UTV pic.twitter.com/KqDdC3yMyV
— Talk Villa (@thetalkvilla) October 22, 2023