Chelsea’s new defender Thiago Silva has been warned he’s going to need an oxygen mask at Stamford Bridge in the season ahead.
The veteran Brazilian still looks one of the finest centre-backs in the world on his day, but he’s coming into a Chelsea side that looks a little top-heavy after stockpiling a lot of attacking talent without really doing much to improve at the back.
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See below as pundit Craig Burley points this out and jokes that Silva could have such a hard time doing the defensive work that he’ll need an oxygen mask to cope…
“Thiago Silva is going to need an oxygen mask because there is only N’Golo Kante in there who has got any defensive qualities,” Burley told ESPN FC.
“That’s going to be the difficulty for Lampard, striking the balance.
“Mason Mount, who really flourished in his first season in the Premier League, is an attacking player, Kai Havertz played a lot of the season at Leverkusen as a striker, and then you add the front three [Werner, Ziyech and Christian Pulisic] in and it’s ‘over to you N’Golo Kante’ because nobody else is going to be defending!
“Striking a balance with [Mateo] Kovacic or somebody else in there is going to be key.
“Chelsea had one of their worst seasons defensively last year, they lost a heck of a lot of goals, so Lampard knows that he needs to make sure he solidifies his back line, which was a big problem for them.
“Chelsea are going to be great to watch, you just don’t know which way!”
Chelsea fans will surely be hoping that after signing the likes of Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech and Kai Havertz to strengthen up front, they can now focus on improving defensively.
The Blues had a poor record at the back last season and it’s surprising that more hasn’t been done to change things in that department so far this summer.