Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino made a bold call last night in his side’s win against Aston Villa.
Mauricio Pochettino decided to drop Thiago Silva, who has been a mainstay in Chelsea‘s defence this season.
It would now not be a surprise to see the Argentine phase the Brazilian out of the team.
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Thiago Silva dropped for Aston Villa game
Why was Silva left out of Chelsea’s starting XI for their trip to Villa Park? The controversy surrounding his wife’s social media post, which seemed to call for Pochettino to be sacked, may not have helped his cause.
However, in all likelihood, the former Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham Hotspur boss probably just felt he needed to change something at the back after bad defeats to Wolverhampton Wanderers and Liverpool.
Unfortunately for Silva, he had to be the casualty and could now find it hard to get back in the team.
Benoit Badiashile did not do a terrible job alongside Axel Disasi, so Pochettino may decide to keep that central defensive pairing together.
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Should Thiago Silva be left out of the team for the Crystal Palace match
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Based on how well Badiashile and Disasi coped with Villa, it does not make much sense to bring Silva back into the fold.
However, while he remains a Chelsea player, we do not think Pochettino should be too quick to overlook him outright.
The Blues play Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final at the end of the month, for example. Would it be wise to leave a defender of Silva’s quality and experience out of the starting XI? Probably not. With his £110,000-a-week contract (Spotrac) expiring in the summer, though, we are slowly coming to the point where the Brazil international will no longer be an option at Stamford Bridge it seems.