Thiago Silva at Chelsea 2020/21 – scout report

Chelsea have had a busy summer transfer that has been extended till October 5th to accommodate the elongated 2019/20 season. The Blues seemed to have burst into life after three quiet windows due to the transfer ban and no targets immediately available. While they have more than strengthened their forward ranks with the purchases of Hakim Ziyech, Timo Werner, and Kai Havertz, their most important signing has come in the form of 35-year-old former Paris Saint-Germain defender, Thiago Silva.

Chelsea struggled defensively last season with a host of high profile goalkeeping errors and calamitous defending at set-pieces and counter-attacks. Frank Lampard tried a number of combinations but no pairing seemed to convince and perform consistently. This scout report will look at what improvements Silva can bring to this Chelsea side and who might be the best fit alongside him.

Defensive positioning

Lampard’s Chelsea tactics include a very fluid and attacking style of play. A possession hungry team, the current system revolves around a 4-3-3, but have experimented with a 4-2-3-1 and 3-5-2. The use of different formations is to allow Lampard the flexibility to adapt to the opposition and utilise different strengths in the squad. However, their overall structure remains consistent throughout each system. Most of the players are centrally located and the full-backs are the widest players on the pitch in this 4-3-3. This will become even more prevalent with Ziyech and Christian Puslisic expected to be the first choice wide players coming inside.

Now, Chelsea often play with a high defensive line, which means that they will push their full-backs up and the two centre-backs and the deepest central midfielder as the players furthest back. A lot of the defensive problems Chelsea faced came from teams that exposed the spaces in behind, especially when the full-backs pushed up, which forced Chelsea to defend in wide open areas. 

The centre-backs were not organised and this caused teams to carve them open in counter-attacking situations. The high line compounded this and while the likes of Antonio Rudiger, Kurt Zouma, and Fikayo Tomori have pace, they weren’t able to nullify the threats often enough. Their fourth-place finish was not without their fair share of mistakes after conceding 54 goals. Nine clean sheets for a side gunning for a top-four position is not good enough.

The above example is the type of goals Chelsea regularly conceded last season. Taking an example from their Champions League campaign, we can see Bayern Munich looking to cross the ball into the box where five Chelsea players are in the box, and three to occupy the Bayern attackers. However, the lack of communication, positioning, and organisation in this instance led to the goal as the cross was put in between Zouma and Emerson for Corentin Tolisso to slip through unmarked. The lack of leadership in Chelsea’s heart of defence is telling and confirmed their needs for a new, more experienced central defender.

Now, what Silva brings to the forefront of this Chelsea defence is an excellent sense of positioning. One of the issues with the current crop of centre-backs is not anticipating being at the right place to intercept or stop opposition attacks. Silva brings this in abundance with his intelligence in understanding space which allows him to make tackles or intercept passes and crosses. Though he lacks pace, his positioning makes up for his speed which allows him to set up to become proactive rather than reactive. In PSG’s recent UEFA Champions League run, he was faced against a number of quick and smart attackers like Robert Lewandowski and Serge Gnabry both of whom were terrorising defences throughout Bayern Munich’s run to the final. While Presnel Kimpembe and Marquinhos provided the aggressiveness and pace, Silva played a more cover role where he swept up anything that came in behind and blocked any potential crosses and passes.