Douglas Luiz snub by Brazil a clueless call as Aston Villa ace far superior record emerges
Aston Villa midfielder Douglas Luiz faced yet another snub by Brazil manager Tite despite his superb form under Unai Emery in recent months.
The 24-year-old was left out of Brazil’s 23-man squad for their friendly against Morocco in the international break, with the likes of West Ham’s struggling playmaker Lucas Paqueta and Wolves’ Joao Gomes picked in front of him.
The exclusion of Luiz is another clueless call from Tite, whose national team crashed out at the Qatar World Cup quarter-final stage without Luiz in it – yet he has decided to keep the midfielder omitted from his national set-up.
And when comparing Luiz against his Premier League counterparts who made the squad, it is clear the Aston Villa ace is the far superior player in several departments.
Although Paqueta is largely seen as a more attacking option than Luiz, the West Ham playmaker was part of a double pivot in the World Cup, a position that Luiz has quickly mastered with Boubacar Kamara this season.
According to the stats on WhoScored, the Villa midfielder has outperformed Paqueta in almost every area on the ball. Luiz has registered five assists to Paqueta’s two, while producing 1.3 key passes per game compared to the Hammers players’ 1.
If Tite is looking for a player to tick things over in the midfield, Luiz also holds a far superior record to his Brazilian counterpart – making almost eight passes more per game at an 87.4% success rate compared to Paqueta’s 80.9% record.
Meanwhile, Wolves midfielder Gomes, although sitting in the top 1% for tackles made per 90 minutes (4.26), lacks the attacking ambition of Luiz.
As per the Opta-powered stats on Fbref, Gomes sits in the 50th percentile for central midfielders in the last year for assists created, compared to Aston Villa’s midfield maestro, who is in the top 15% of players in this category.
Considering Luiz’s far superior record to both Paqueta and Gomes, it is surely only a matter of time before he gets a chance to stake his claim for a Brazil first-team spot under Tite.
In other Aston Villa news, an academy gem can save Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris millions in the long-run after his recent loan performances.