Douglas Luiz unexpectedly lets Aston Villa fans down after stinker in 3-2 Manchester United loss, redemption required v Burnley

When Aston Villa hosts Burnley on Saturday, December 30, Douglas Luiz will be looking for a way back following an unusually bad performance against Manchester United this week.

 

Aston Villa let a two-goal lead slip to lose 3-2 to Manchester United at Old Trafford on Tuesday (December 26), missing the opportunity to tie Liverpool for first place in the Premier League.

After playing 1027 minutes in the tournament, Rasmus Hojlund scored Manchester United’s first Premier League goal to cap off an incredible comeback.

Aston Villa raced into a two-goal lead in the first half after goals from McGinn and Leander Dendoncker but completely imploded after half-time with two goals from Alejandro Garnacho and Hojlund compounded Villa to their first league defeat since the start of November at Nottingham Forest.

 

The result means the Villans missed the chance to go level on points with Liverpool after their 2-0 win over Burnley earlier in the evening, now sitting three points behind Jurgen Klopp’s men in third.

 

Villa’s first defeat in the league for over a month can certainly be put down to several factors, not least the risky high-

line which Manchester United ruthlessly exposed, the lack of urgency in the

visitor’s pressing but more crucially Emery’s key stars failing to grab the

initiative as has regularly been the case all season long.

No one would have predicted Brazilian master Luiz to stumble like he did, but

big-name players like Ollie Watkins, Ezri Konsa, Leon Bailey, and Emi Martinez all

vanished as the Red Devils unleashed a second-half blitz at Old Trafford.

The former Manchester City player’s steady and impactful performances at

the center of the Aston Villa midfield have made him one of the team’s biggest triumphs this season.

Luiz, who could well be an attraction for any of the so-called “top six” has been in

scintillating form this season, having scored six goals and laid on four assists in 23 appearances [Transfermarkt] to

help his side up to third in the Premier League table at the time of writing and

into the Europa Conference League knockout stages.

 

The Brazilian has started in all 19 of the Villans’ Premier League games this

season as they remarkably sit just two points off league leaders Liverpool.

 

He is also clearly looking to be more involved offensively during this campaign after registering 1.5 shots per

game compared to the 0.9 he averaged last year, with his goal conversion rate

rising from 18 per cent to 25 per cent [SofaScore].

The former Manchester City man has averaged a SofaScore rating of 7.52 in the opening few months of the season – the

best average rating of any Villa player, having taken 75.8 touches per outing as

he looks to get on the ball and make things happen.

 

He has made 1.2 key passes, laid on three big chances created and recorded a pass success rate of 89 per cent, while his

impressive 93 per cent total from balls played in his half shows that he doesn’t

give too much away in potentially dangerous areas.

 

Considering he’s deployed deep in midfield for Emery, he still contributes heavily to the attack, ranking in the 90th

percentile of midfielders in Europe’s top five leagues for goal-creating actions and

the 81st percentile for shot-creating actions [FBRef] marking him out as one

of the most complete all-rounders in his position.

 

However, none of those characteristics were on show against Manchester United

as Luiz was given the runaround by Bruno Fernandes and co.

 

Whether that is down to Boubacar Kamara’s suspension absence is unlikely

because his partner on the night, Leander Dendoncker excelled with a

tremendous individual showing, winning 83 per cent of his ground duels, 66 per

cent of his aerial duels, completing 75 per cent of his long balls, 89 per cent of

his passes and also scoring his first Aston Villa goal.

Luiz, who was completely absent from midfield, had an entirely different story. He had the lowest average SofaScore rating of any player on the field (6.3/10), completed only 78% of his passes, had a 0% success rate in both ground and aerial duels, and only 33% of his long balls and crosses.

 

To be true, it was a complete surprise coming from the Brazilian, who has proven himself throughout the season, particularly in the last few weeks against Manchester City and Arsenal.

Luiz, who let his devoted fans down the previous week, will be the one who wants to make things right the most on Saturday as Villa has a great opportunity to win back against Burnley.

 

As a result, Vincent Kompany’s side might be facing individual concealment.