Thiago Silva has hit back at Chelsea fans claiming he should be dropped to allow Mauricio Pochettino to implement his preferred formation.
The Brazilian played the whole 90 minutes as the Blues lost 1-0 at home to Nottingham Forest on Saturday afternoon, courtesy of Anthony Elanga‘s first Premier League goal in 19 months.
Taiwo Awoniyi slipped the ball through Silva’s legs to set up Forest’s winner after a mix-up in midfield between Moses Caicedo and Conor Gallagher.
And Silva didn’t take kindly to the criticism expressed on social media by the CFC Talk account.
‘This won’t go down well, but I think it’s time to drop Thiago Silva,’ the Instagram post read.
Thiago Silva hit back at Chelsea fans who criticised his selection on social media
The Brazilian pointed out Chelsea played with a back four against Nottingham Forest
‘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 for Thiago, but I think we’d better off without him at the minute.’
It didn’t take long for the 38-year-old to address the criticism, pointing out Chelsea had in fact lined up with four at the back.
‘If you look closely at the game, we are playing with a line of four, my friend,’ Silva wrote.
‘But there’s no problem in assuming I’m also responsible for the defeat. Put the pressure on me. No problem yesterday.’
Under Pochettino, Chelsea have lined up in a 3-4-3 formation in their first four Premier League matches this season.
Silva has started each of them alongside Levi Colwill and Axel Disasi, with the trio all playing every minute of the Blues’ league campaign so far.
Mauricio Pochettino watched his Chelsea side slump to a second defeat in four games
Ben Chilwell has also been ever-present in the left wing-back role, while Malo Gusto replaced Reece James on the other flank after the Chelsea skipper suffered an injured in the opening game of the season against Liverpool.
Chelsea dominated possession against Forest and Nicolas Jackson missed a glorious chance to level the score, but were to made to pay for a defensive mistake.
‘We are disappointed because we did everything to try and get a different result,’ the Chelsea boss said.
‘But football is about not making mistakes and we made one mistake and paid for that.’
The Chelsea boss added: ‘We are building something and it is always up and down. We are unlucky because I think we deserved more. But I have said before, it is only a matter of time.’
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