Chelsea has been heavily invested in this summer transfer window, with a net expenditure of £197 million.
With the recent appointment of head coach Mauricio Pochettino, there is significant pressure on the club to make a substantial improvement in form compared to their finish in the bottom half of the Premier League last season.
The anticipation of a strong start to the new season is slowly diminishing for many Chelsea fans. On Saturday afternoon, a goal by Anthony Elanga led to a 1-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge by Nottingham Forest, leaving Chelsea in 11th place in the league. This result has understandably stirred significant frustration among the Stamford Bridge faithful.
Unsurprisingly, Chelsea’s disappointing performance has triggered a flurry of reactions on social media. Fans are dissecting how their team managed to muster only two shots on target in the entire match despite dominating possession with just under 80%.
Chelsea fan points finger at Thiago Silva
Thus, a Chelsea-based Instagram page posted their views on the match, pointing the finger towards issues that they believe stem from the back line and deriving that Brazilian veteran Thiago Silva is a factor that affected the outcome of the game, posting: “This won’t go down well, but I think it’s time to drop Thiago Silva.
Playing him is becoming a problem because we have to play a back five to shoehorn him in. Playing four at the back will allow us to be better going forward, and I don’t think we’ll suffer much at the back. Nothing but respect to Thiago, but I think we’d be better off without him at the minute.”
As anticipated by the author of the post, this admission drew significant criticism in the comments section. The majority of responses disagreed with the sentiment presented, with many expressing the belief that Thiago Silva is not a significant problem for the team.
One notable response came from Thiago Silva himself. He took to the comments section only 10 minutes after the post was published to refute any suggestions that his presence was hindering the team tactically.
Thiago Silva hits back at fan
Thiago Silva on Instagram….
by u/Iloveindianfood8 in chelseafc
Thiago Silva has his say….. 💥 pic.twitter.com/yuESYuGZYz
— Chelsea Dodgers (@TheBlueDodger) September 2, 2023
Hitting back at the account accusing him of being at fault for the loss on the weekend, the 38-year-old legendary centre-back wrote in response: “If you look closely at the game, we are playing with a line of four my friend! But there’s no problem in assuming that I’m also responsible for the defeat. Put the pressure on me no problem yesterday!”
Quickly debunking the theory put forward surrounding the formation issues, Silva pounced to defend his corner, insisting that he does not mind the pressure and taking full responsibility for the defeat on the weekend.
This is not the first time that Silva has made headlines for publicly addressing issues at the club, as the Brazilian defender pleaded for the club to ‘stop signing new players’ back in April while also declaring that the club “need a strategy.”