José Mourinho continued his early summer spending with the capture of Brazil international Filipe Luís from La Liga champions Atlético Madrid in a deal understood to approach £16m. The 28-year-old Luis, described by Chelsea as an “attack-minded left back”, played an integral role in helping Los Rojiblancos to their first La Liga title in 18 years and the Champions League Final in the season gone by.
Having allowed Ashley Cole to depart Stamford Bridge for Roma earlier in the summer, Jose Mourinho underlined the reasons for the Brazilian’s acquisition, with the Blues boss hinting at the impact (and potential Fantasy headache) Luis’ arrival is likely to bring:
“We needed a pure left-back, a real left-back… We always felt that Filipe was a very stable player and one which gave us multi-solutions because I can play Azpi right-back and Ivanovic centre-back because of Filipe”
THE HISTORY
Luís began his youth career at Figueirense Futebol Clube, before catching the eye of Ajax’s development team in 2004. He subsequently spent a year on loan in Amsterdam, learning the game in Ajax’s prestigious youth academy before returning to Figueirense to earn a place in their first team, making 22 appearances over two seasons and scoring his first professional goal.
In 2005, Luis made his second loan move to Europe. Snapped up by Real Madrid, he was handed a starting berth for the club’s B team in the Spanish second division and proceeded to make 37 appearances before being farmed out to Deportivo La Coruna for the following season. While the Brazilian failed to earn a place in Joan Capdevila’s side, he did enough to extend his spell at the club for a further year and went on to nail down a role as the first choice left back, accruing 52 league appearances and finding the net once.
The 2008/09 season was really Luís’ breakout year. Signed on a permanent deal by Deportivo, he started life as a Galician proper in style, notching a pair of goals in an ever-present debut campaign. But for injury, his second year could have been even stronger; Luís notched another three goals in his 21-game season despite suffering a broken fibula in January 2010.
In the summer of 2010 Atlético Madrid came calling. After battling for his place in the starting XI, Luís went on to nail down the left back role and remained a key part of a much-lauded side that went on to lift the Copa del Ray (2013), La Liga (2014) and earned a spot in last year’s Champions League final. One hundred and twenty seven league appearances and two goals later, Luís brings his tenacious attitude and wealth of experience to West London as José Mourinho prepares Chelsea for another assault on the Premier League title.
THE PROSPECTS
Given that Chelsea recorded a Premier League high 18 clean sheets in their previous campaign, any defensive changes at the Bridge are big news in the Fantasy Football realm. They are also hugely inconvenient.
Last season, Mourinho’s decision to utilise César Azpilicueta at left-back effectively brought Cole’s long and illustrious career at the Bridge to an end, with the right back demonstrating his adaptability by switching flanks to cement a role on the opposite flank. Bearing in mind both Luis and Azpilicueta are valued at 6.0 in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) – making them the cheapest of Chelsea’s five senior defenders – the likelihood of starts has become a point of significant interest to Fantasy managers.
Mourinho’s quotes highlight the problem we face in selecting a nailed-on option in the Chelsea defence: Luis’ arrival triggers a domino effect in the Blues rearguard. Indeed, this exact scenario unfolded in Chelsea’s 3-1 friendly win over Vitesse Arnhem earlier in the week. Luis and Azpilicueta started as the full-backs, with Ivanovic alongside Cahill at centre-half before John Terry’s half-time introduction saw the Spaniard shift left and the Serbian right. The Chelsea skipper joined Cahill in the middle – the preferred pairing last season. Considering there are also question marks over Mourinho’s first-choice keeper for the season ahead due to Thibaut Courtois’ loan return from Atletico, it’s clear that Fantasy managers are currently in the dark over Mourinho’s intentions.
Although his final season at Deportivo, which produced three goals in 21 appearances, back up Chelsea’s claim that Luis is an attacking full-back, the stats suggest otherwise. The left-back mustered 13 attempts on goal and produced 28 key passes over 32 league appearances for Diego Simeone’s side last term – granted, that may be more than Azpilicueta’s five and 12 respectively, but this is dwarfed by Ivanovic’s 38 shots on goal last term; the Serbian also chipped in with 29 chances created.
Ultimately, though, this is a Mourinho team and there’s nothing Jose likes better than a clean sheet. In that respect, Luis’ arrival is more than understandable, with his defensive stats boding well for shut-outs. Looking at last term’s figures, although he was inferior to Azpilicueta for tackles (4.5 to 4.1), interceptions (1.8 to 1.1) and clearances (5.9 to 5.0), when compared against Ivanovic, his tackles per game (4.1 to 2.2) particularly highlight his contribution – bearing in mind Eden Hazard has a roving role on the Chelsea left flank, Mourinho’s tactics clearly call for an intelligent ball-winner, stationed behind the Belgian in his back-four.
It’s perhaps no coincidence that Chelsea mustered three clean sheets in the first 10 fixtures of last season without Azpilicueta. With the Spaniard nailed-on from Gameweek 11 onwards, the Blues served up 15 shut-outs in the final 28 matches, leading to Mourinho famously declaring he’d win the Champions League with a team of Azpilicuetas. Given such lofty praise, the Spaniard hardly seems likely to be overlooked.
Frustratingly, each of the Blues full-backs offer Mourinho such strong options that, for the time being, it’s impossible to ascertain Jose’s gameplan other that to assume rotation.
There’s no doubt that shut-outs will be served up by the London outfit. Their potential is furthered by the fact that they chalked up four clean sheets in six games against their fellow top four – underlining the appeal as fire and forget options under the “Special One”. However, with so much uncertainty surrounding their back line, a “wait and see” policy looks the preferred option, with our initial defences perhaps pre-designed to accommodate an early transfer that will see an arrival from the Blues’ squad once a more settled scenario emerges.
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