'Mean Machine' Jones slams Luiz who always 'hides' when Chelsea struggle

On Sunday, February 10, Chelsea suffered a humbling 6-0 defeat to Manchester City at Etihad. Although the scoreboard is self-explanatory and the result hardly implies that any of the Blues did exceptionally well on the pitch, some of the players still get more criticism than other lads.

Thus, Vinnie Jones, a former midfielder known rather for his grave character and unbreakable fighting spirit than for his football skills, believes David Luiz, who is supposed to be one of the veteran-leaders at Chelsea, doesn't seem to be able to put on a worthy performance when the team need it. The Englishman told talkSPORT:

"David Luiz, I think he hides when Chelsea are losing, I saw the game and just thought, ‘what is going on here?’

David Luiz and Jorginho would be an absolute blessing to Pep’s City. I have no doubt that they would be starters. But on the flip side in our Chelsea team, two players not helped by poor players around them.

— turk (@xiiirye) February 11, 2019

"When Chelsea are winning, he’s pinging 60 yard balls about and looking good, but every time I’ve seen Chelsea struggle or are losing, Luiz will hide. You can't have that."

Although the Brazilian's display was far from satisfying indeed, it might be still hard to agree with Jones on that. The centre-back was usually fine with the ball distribution, completing 63 passes (2nd most at the team) at a 92 per cent success rate, performed 4 accurate long balls of the attempted 8, made 2 through passes and created one chance with his only key pass.

Thus, the 'pinging-60-yard-balls-about' dig doesn't seem to be that reasonable.