Aston Villa fans were gutted to see the back of Douglas Luiz in the summer.
It was a bitter pill to swallow, but to meet financial rules, Aston Villa had no choice but to sell Luiz to Juventus.
The 26-year-old had become one of the most important players at the club and taken his game to new levels under Unai Emery.
When Luiz first joined Villa in 2019 from Manchester City, the whole purpose of signing the then-21-year-old was for him to, in the long-term, either take the club into Europe or create a pathway where he gets sold on for big bucks and that money is then used to boost the whole squad.
In the end, Luiz played a crucial role in Villa reaching the Champions League, but it was sad that he wasn’t here to don the Claret & Blue colours as the team returned to Europe’s elite.
It’s actually quite ironic that Villa have been drawn up against Juventus in the Champions League and Luiz will play at Villa Park in that competition, it just so happens to be for the other side.
That game will take place on November 27, and as of this moment, Luiz will be lucky enough to come off the bench, never mind starting.
Life in Turiin has been difficult for the midfielder and Paolo Di Canio opened up on his struggles and what has changed.
The former West Ham player made it clear that he has always thought that Luiz was a ‘top player’ and that he was seen as an ‘icon’ in the Midlands.
But Di Canio was honest enough to say that he has become ‘unrecognisable’ from the player that used to ‘attack the ball’, start attacks, play with a ‘different pace’ and perform like a ‘Pitbull’ for Villa, as he told Calciomercato.
Douglas Luiz’s struggles at Juventus explained after Aston Villa exit
“He’s a player I often talk about, not just with Juventus fans.” shared Di Canio. I expressed myself: I said that ‘Juventus has signed a top player’. And I’m still convinced of that.
“Simply, what I saw here from a distance, he’s unrecognisable. Beyond the 50 million euro valuation, which for me is also fair for the level of the player, he’s really a different person compared to the one I saw so many times at Aston Villa. I don’t blame the player or the coach, I don’t know what the situation is, but there could be a psychological problem.
“I see him as slow, not very aggressive, he touches the ball with the sole, he wastes a tempo of the game, it seems like he’s using two fewer gears than before. In the Premier League, he attacked the ball carrier, recovered and restarted, cut and sewed, fell and restarted immediately, he had a different pace, he looked like a Pitbull. I judge the situation now, because football is situational, contextual and periodic. I hope for Juve that Thiago Motta manages to bring out the attitude of Douglas Luiz. I have no doubts about the player’s seriousness, at Aston Villa he was an idol and they loved him. It could be that some bench has saddened him. Normal that now, Thiago prefers Locatelli who is more applied, more attentive, quicker in the head and foot.”
Juventus need to be patient with Douglas Luiz
The first six months of Luiz’s career at Villa was a struggle, but then he settled down and became a top, top player.
Perhaps the same level of patience is needed here because class is permanent for a reason.
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Yes, it doesn’t help that Luiz gave away two penalties in a week, but that’s his confidence on the floor, he just needs one strong performance and then the rest will just flow.
And if his critics are still going at him in January, then he is more than happy to return to Villa!
