Arsenal: Making David Luiz captain the opposite of what should happen

Paul Merson has stated that David Luiz should be named an Arsenal captain by Unai Emery. If anything, though, that is the exact opposite of what should happen.

Arsenal head coach Unai Emery has stated that he wants five captains at the club. He took this shared leadership approach last season also, but after club captain Laurent Koscielny departed in the summer, as well as Aaron Ramsey and Nacho Monreal, the candidates to inherit leadership responsibility are now limited, to say the least.

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So far this season, Granit Xhaka has been the incumbent captain. But even then, Emery has been hesitant to commit to him, using a ‘Voice of Dressing Room’ piece in the matchday program rather than the usual ‘Captain’s Notes’.

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And with Emery still yet to name who his captain/captains will be, former Arsenal midfielder Paul Merson has come up with a nifty idea: make the newly signed centre-back who has been directly responsible for several goals already this year the captain. Speaking on Sky Sports, Merson bravely and rather foolishly stated:

"“The worrying thing for me is I heard the manager say he’s going to have five captains, which tells me he has no idea what his team is. Unai Emery’s been there a year-and-a-half, he’s got to have five captains because he doesn’t have a clue what his best team is <…> David Luiz has got to be captain, he’s a serial winner. People have a go at him because one week he’ll be a 2/10 and the next a 9/10, but he’s going to play every week.”"

Now, I have nothing against David Luiz. I thought he was a clever acquisition for £8 million in the summer. Arsenal were in desperate need of a centre-back. They had little money to spend and needed to get a little inventive. And so they did, stealing an experienced, capable if inconsistent starter from a direct rival for a snippet of his actual value.

But based on his performances this season, making him captain, which would be, in essence, a reward for his work in his first campaign at the Emirates, is the exact opposite of what should be happening. Luiz’s displays do not deserve recognition. Instead, he should feel his place in the starting XI is under pressure.

He may be a ‘serial winner’, as Merson points out, and such intangible mental qualities are certainly important to have in a squad, but he is also not playing very well. Your captain needs to be playing regularly — or at least deserving of playing regularly — and, at present, Luiz should not be.

Of course, I do not expect Luiz to be dropped by Emery. He is a new signing still coming to grips with his new team. Emery has also shown huge patience with experienced players who he feels help his team. But that does not mean he should be made captain. That would, undoubtedly, be a terrible idea.