Chelsea and the Thiago Silva predicament

 

Earlier this week it was reported that Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino was considering switching to a three-man defence in order to shore up the leaky Blues backline. Chelsea had just lost 4-2 at home to Wolves that saw them drop into the bottom half of the season. In the wake of the defeat, Belle Silva, wife of centre-back Thiago Silva, tweeted: "It’s time to change. If you wait any longer it will be too late" 

 

The outburst may not have sat well with certain quarters within the club but she had a point, albeit not in the way she might have expected. Silva was dropped for Chelsea's 3-1 FA Cup fourth round replay win at Aston Villa, and it's fair to say it was the best the west London side have played for some time. Pochettino's side were electric going forward, ruthless in attack and solid at the back, holding firm up until Moussa Diaby's late consolation. 

 

That the Villa Park victory came without Silva in the XI won't come as a surprise to some. In an admittedly small sample size, Chelsea's win ratio rises from 36% to 84% when the experienced Brazilian doesn't start. Six victories from the seven matches the 39-year-old hasn't featured from the outset is telling. That the goals conceded per game has drops from 1.56 to 0.71 also speaks volumes. 

 

 

At 39 years of age, Silva is very much in the twilight years of his career. His current deal expires at the end of the season, one signed last February to quash rumours of a return to Brazil, and there has been little in the way of rumours of a new contract at Stamford Bridge with both player and club likely to part ways this summer. Back in November, Fluminense club president Mario Bittencourt said: "I’m sure that one day he could play for Fluminense again." A move back to his first club is certainly a possibility. 

 

Given Chelsea's performance in midweek without Silva, that undoubtedly raises questions over whether he'll even work his way back into the Blues XI before the end of the season. A leader on the pitch, Silva is a great role model for the younger centre-backs on the books at the club. Only Tottenham's Micky van de Ven (94.7%) has a better pass success rate than the Brazil international (94.2%) in England's top tier this term with his distribution among the best in the league. 

 

Yet Silva's best performances, particularly in a Chelsea shirt, have come when he has two mobile centre-backs either side of him in a three-man defence. The reports of Pochettino's potential return to a three-man backline to salvage their season will have been with Silva in mind. Additionally, Chelsea have the personnel to play with three centre-backs in front of the goalkeeper. 

 

With Axel Disasi and one of Levi Colwill or Benoit Badiashile to the right and left, respectively, of Silva, you have the foundation of a solid backline, and one that has already worked well in the past. Yet that may have been a reactive approach from Pochettino having conceded eight goals in back-to-back lacklustre defeats at the hands of Liverpool and Wolves. The midweek showing at Villa will have given the Argentine more food for though. 

 

In Pochettino's favoured 4-2-3-1 setup, the victory at Villa Park was the best Chelsea have looked in years and with a centre-back duo of Disasi and Badiashile; if it ain't broke, why fix it? Just as Pochettino has the personnel to implement a three-man backline, so too does he have the players at this disposal to go with his bread-and-better system but the latter would be far more effective without Silva. 

 

Disasi, Badiashile and Colwill are far more mobile than the former PSG man. Silva may have proven a bargain addition on a free, and one that has benefited the Blues, but the time has evidently come to move on from the vastly experienced centre-back. Given the overall performance by the Blues in Birmingham, Pochettino's mind is likely to have been made up and that does mean a system without Silva. Given the stats, that's not such a bad thing.

Chelsea and the Thiago Silva predicament