Three big questions: Chelsea’s Thiago Silva and the old man role
By Travis Tyler
Thiago Silva has surprisingly joined Chelsea to add some much needed experience on and off the pitch. What questions should be asked of him?
It came a bit out of nowhere, but Thiago Silva has joined Chelsea after his contract ended at Paris Saint-Germain. As far as swan songs of a career go, it is a pretty big step to enter the Premier League at his age. It is not without risk for Chelsea either but it was a calculated risk in a summer of high spending. What questions should be asked of the Brazilian centerback ahead of the new season?
1. Can he keep up at the back?
This will be the main concern. Silva is a very good defender. He can read the game exceptionally well. But he is not the fastest defender. That was a cause for concern with Unai Emery because it often pulled the entire defensive line deeper as Silva compensated for his lack of speed by giving himself more space.
Now of course, the argument against that is Paris Saint-Germain playing in a high line and Silva doing just fine under Thomas Tuchel. But one needs to look at how they play that high line. The vast majority of teams playing PSG will not want to give the likes of Kylian Mbappe and Neymar space to run into. So, they back off and get rid of that space. PSG can then press their defensive line up without much worry. PSG playing a high line is very accurate but also opponents would be foolish to try to come at PSG on most days.
That being said, PSG’s Mbappe and Neymar did not stop Bayern Munich from pressing up high and going toe to toe with the French side. Even in that final, PSG played a highline. The only real adjustment PSG made to compensate for Silva’s speed is making the formation a makeshift 3-4-3 depending on where the ball was.
Overall, it cannot be dismissed that Silva did very well in that final. Bayern is surely going to be worse than anything Silva may face in the Premier League, though the overall intensity week after week may eventually begin to wear. It will be hard to tell exactly how Silva adapts without seeing him for a few games.