Most Chelsea fans probably weren’t too interest in reading a match report from Sunday’s game. Why repeat the pain of a game we had just seen? It was a remarkably agonising game to watch too.
But if you had read Mike McGrath’s post-match coverage in the Telegraph, you would have noticed something interesting. It’s only a line, but it’s an interesting one. On the subject of Thiago Silva, who had been restored to the starting lineup for the first time since February, McGrath revealed that there had been pressure from the dressing room on the manager to get the Brazilian back in the team to try and stabilise things.
“Pochettino brought back Thiago Silva to his starting line-up which gave the look of solidity, only for the backline to concede two goals which will have the Chelsea analysts in despair.
“Thiago had the support of some of his team-mates for a return to the starting line-up after five matches on the bench since coming back from a groin injury.”
Given how dismal our defensive record has been while the veteran was out, it’s no surprise the team wanted him back in. Fans online were swinging that way too. After months of demanding the 39 year old be dropped for the way his presence forced the team to play deep, some were suddenly demanding his return after seeing the slapstick efforts of Benoit Badiashile and Axel Disasi in his absence.
Where to turn next
We’re not sure where Pochettino goes from here. Silva played well, but the defending was still poor and we didn’t do much in attack either. Hopefully with Malo Gusto back for our next match, Disasi can play alongside Trevoh Chalobah in the middle and try to create some solidity with that partnership.
At this stage, fans have largely given up on all of the defenders in the squad however, and we’re not sure even our coach knows where to turn.
If Silva can’t be relied upon to organize the defense, then what good is he to us? Though a player like Disasi might have an error or two in him, he has also has the speed to recover from some of those errors, indeed we saw an example of both in one play against Utd. Silva has no such pace to cover either his or his teammates’ errors, and if he isn’t providing organization and one or two top-drawer passes per match then he’s a bit of a waste out there. Every minute he’s on the pitch is a minute of experience NOT going toward developing one of our many players who badly need it.