Should David Luiz be playing as a centre back? Vote on the poll on the right!

After Sunday's derby defeat to QPR, there has been a lot of talk about David Luiz, his temperament and what position he should be playing according to his attributes. In a game which was decided by a penalty awarded due to a needless challenge by the Brazilian, a lot of fans were angered by the fact that a rash, stupid and pointless challenge by one player lost us a match against fierce rivals. A player with a great amount of talent and potential, should Luiz be playing in defence or is there a better place for him in our team? I'm going to look at the current positions he plays and potential positions he could play in.

Centre Back Currently Luiz's position that he plays in for the club. He does suit this position very well however he has two major flaws in this position which were both seen in the QPR match. Firstly, and most obviously, he goes in for a lot of silly pointless challenges when it would be better to stand off and wait until there is a better opportunity to win the ball, often this can come to haunt us, such as the penalty against QPR yesterday and the penalty conceded to Fulham on his full debut. Another major flaw of his game in defence is the way that he sometimes fails to track back after he goes on one of his trademark forward runs, this could be clearly seen against QPR when Bosingwa was left on his own to defend against Shaun Wright-Phillips, and was sent off (debatably) due to a lack of cover from the centre backs, where Luiz should've been, but he had been halfway up the pitch when his pass to Drogba was intercepted and instead of tracking back to defend, he tried to make challenge in midfield, stranding our defence resulting in the red card for Bosingwa. Although he does have these faults, he is still an excellent centre back, with a great aerial ability, along with great pace and a good eye for a pass out of defence, it is just his judgement and aggression that hold him back. A good centre back, Luiz is no doubt, but a world class one he could be if he matures properly. 

Right Back At various times during his career at Chelsea, many have said that he could make a very accomplished right back. This position would suit his mix of attacking instincts and defensive qualities. Looking at our two current first team right backs, Branislav Ivanovic and Jose Bosingwa, they both lack a balance of these, with Bosingwa very good on the front foot, whilst weak defensively and on the other hand, Ivanovic doesn't offer too much in attack but is brilliant defensively, with his natural centre back skills coming in handy. Luiz does have a balance of these, with the skill to beat a man and the ability to run down the flanks very well, the only problem could be his crossing ability, which is yet to be seen properly in a Chelsea shirt, but his range of passing is very good normally, so it would hint that he could definitely put a good cross into the box.

Defensive Midfielder The main alternative position that has been suggested for David Luiz is in between the defence and midfield, offering the defence cover by breaking up attacks, by intercepting and tackling the opponents, winning the ball and then passing it out to the attack. Our current defensive midfielder Jon Obi Mikel, has received a lot of critisism for his lack of attacking imputes and tends to slow play down rather than keep it going at a good pace. However, Oriol Romeu did this brilliantly against Genk, and it looks like David Luiz would be able to do a similar job in midfield with his brilliant ability in the challenge as well as great vision for a forward pass, and by being in a higher up area of the field, he may also avoid giving away fouls in dangerous areas of the pitch.

Attacking Midfielder Throwing this one out there as a bit of a wild alternative to where David Luiz normally plays. We all know that Luiz has got a great array of skills as well as a burning desire to get as far up the pitch as possible. Who says he has to defend? His runs forward could be productive for us and we could reap chances because of it.  You only have to look at Frank Lampard's goal v. Bolton to see that Luiz's runs upfield can create things. Luiz is also blessed with a good shot as can be seen from goals against Manchester United and Bayer Leverkusen. As well as a good shot from distance which was visible to see when he hit the bar in the 3-0 win over West Ham last season. Could he do a job for us higher up the pitch? 

David Luiz is clearly a fantastic player who definitely has the technical attributes to be a great player for Chelsea, it is just the mental attributes that are worrying fans at the moment. What position do you guys think he should play in? Vote on the poll in the top right hand side of my website, and see what other people think as well.