You won't find many Chelsea fans who will put Rudiger in any first team line-up, I can assure you.
Thiago Silva | Fluminense Player
- Thread starter horsechoker
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Chelsea have signed as many players this summer as we have in our last 3 combined ffs!
New GK (Oblak/Onana)
Azpilicueta Rudiger Silva Chilwell
Kovacic Kante
Ziyech Havertz Pulisic
Werner
Title challenger ambitions. Gotta give credit where it's due to Chelsea, it's nice to see a club other than City and Liverpool who are actually serious about challenging. Hope they win it, because we sure as feck won't.Azpilicueta Rudiger Silva Chilwell
Kovacic Kante
Ziyech Havertz Pulisic
Werner
Oh my days
I know Chelsea fans don't generally like Rudiger much but even after a dodgy season I think Lampard would still put him in ahead of the others, which is surely more relevant.
He might play James right and Azpi in the middle I suppose. Can't see him preferring Christensen or Zouma who both also had quite poor seasons IMO.
The team looks stronger but in all honesty it doesn't look like a title challenging team at the moment. In some ways I still prefer our line up, though we really need a couple of signings.
How are you planning to fix your goalkeeper situation?
That's 2 solid XIs to be fair. Either can mount a credible top 4 challenge. Great squad depth.
United’s rEBuiLd vs a real one. Ed thinking “but but, you can’t sign more than 3 players per window, it’s unpossible!”
Yeah I'd say our first 11 is at least on par. It's just our backup options are awful. Our back up front 4 is Ighalo, Mata, James and Lingard. Theirs would basically be what they had last season: Giroud, Abraham, CHO and Mount.
We'll get a new goalkeeper.
Think we can not be compared to them, they had transfer ban last summer and sold Hazard for a lot of money. We should still be signing few players though, City have great squad and still added 2 players plus possibly Koulibaly.
Rudiger had a decidedly poorer season than any of our CB's last season and he was supposed to be our best and most experienced CB. He may improve alongside Silva, who knows. Maybe he doesn't do well when he's the experienced guy who has to lead the other CB on the pitch, but I'd be far more comfortable with Zouma next to Silva.
I think it's very clear that Declan Rice is the long term #1 target in the same way that Chilwell was for Frank. It's just a deal that was impossible this summer with our other expenditures combined with West Ham's asking price likely being in the Harry Maguire territory.
So we went with a short term shot in the arm to bridge us to next summer.
So we went with a short term shot in the arm to bridge us to next summer.
He's a great fit for Chelsea and people who says he's done because of his age have not seen him play those past couple seasons. It's very possible that he flops or that age starts catching up to him, but I'm pretty confident for them. He's also a great defense leader and a model professional, he's the perfect fit next to either Rudiger Zouma or Tomori who are decent but kind of headless chickens who'll benefit greatly from playing alongside someone like Thiago Silva.
The 2 goals Man Utd conceded against Sevilla due to bad positioning dont happen with a Thiago Silva in your backline.
The 2 goals Man Utd conceded against Sevilla due to bad positioning dont happen with a Thiago Silva in your backline.
The last time they had a similar summer in terms of transfer was 04/05, when 7 acquisitions were made. They were all approaching their prime similar to this summer transfer (excluding Thiago Silva), compared to 06/07 which was a contrast of the previous season. (04/05: Cech – 22, Carvalho – 24, Didier – 25, Arjen Robben – 20, Kezman – 25, Ferreira – 25, Tiago – 23). (06/07: Ballack – 30, Sheva – 30).
made me chuckleAnd people pretend like he will get outpaced just because he is 36. At the end of the day age is still a number. Look how Schweinsteiger declined physically at 30/31 ?! Thiago Silva looks super fit. Pretty sure he is even in better shape than some other younger CBs, or even Strikers. Don't think that CBs like Hummels or Maguire are so much faster, let alone faster than him.
By a mile!
He’s a great player still and will definitely improve them defensively. It’ll be interesting to see how they set up though now they have much better attackers. Might make lampard go a little more cautious, however it remains to be seen if he can actually set up a backline.
I would say and hope to be right that Zouma is his most likely partner, both French speaking and Zouma has always performed best with a solid leader and cool head next to him in either Terry or Cahill.
His career trajectory is so weird. I think many would be surprised to learn that he had moved to Russia aged 20, got diagnosed with tuberculosis (turned out that he was already sick for about 8 months), spent almost a year hospitalised and still somehow managed to restart his career by going back to Brazil. It's so rare to see a Brazilian footballer succeed when their first move to Europe doesn't work out, yet he had managed it.
That Milan side was quite decent though – he got to play with Nesta, Seedorf, Pirlo, Ronaldinho, Ibra and won a scudetto.
Good signing but might be a good few years too late. Always seemed a likeable bloke though.
He's still a better CB in his sleep than any of Chelsea's other defenders but nevertheless an odd signing given his age and injury problems.
he might be very useful in defending the set pieces against smaller sides but would be found out against bigger sides. A good signing anyways.
I love Thiago Silva and think he's had a great career but he will expect to play most weeks and in England you don't get the same 'rest' in terms of both number of games played and also quality of opposition. Think this could ruin him physically and destabilize this Chelsea side with him moving in and out of the squad.
I don't think pace will be an issue at all. The problem Frank will have to solve is how to manage the matches he starts. He should only be played in the PL and CL. Rest him for all the League Cup and FA Cup matches until the very last rounds.
Well he's not. Thiago Silva in his prime was extremely fast he's not the same now but still is a very quick defender.
Given how shaky we've been defensively, bringing in a vastly experienced proven winner like Silva seems like a really sensible move. He's obviously not going to play every game, but hopefully he can help a lot with settling things down at the back, helping the still young CB's improve tactically and of course provide us with a player that we can actually rely on for the big games.
Very happy with this, now we just need the new keeper and to finalize Havertz (which is apparently very close) and we're pretty much ready for the new season.
Very happy with this, now we just need the new keeper and to finalize Havertz (which is apparently very close) and we're pretty much ready for the new season.
1-Maguire is far faster than you think he is, slow on the turn? Sure. Over 100m he’s not slow at all.
2-a 36 year old Thiago Silva is a lot slower than you think too. Maguire would leave him in the first in a leg race. You are making the mistake of comparing turning speed to actual pace.
No I'm comparing thiago Silva who in his prime is known for his speed hes very quick. He has slowed down a bit but as you can see from the champions league he is still quick and isn't even remotely slow on the turn. Maguire might be deceptively quicker than he might get credit for but he isn't actually quick at all and is slow on the turn.
Maguire would leave him in a footrace?................ Have you seen maguire?
Anyone else completely nonplussed by Chelsea's signings? I can see that they are keeping pace with us in terms of having a comparable starting eleven, but I'm struggling to buy the narrative that they are pulling clear.
Up to now they have signed a Luke Shaw level left back, a soon to be 36 year old centre half on a free, another centre half who isn't going to play, a right winger who you wouldn't compromise Greenwood's talent/the possible acquisition of Sancho for and a striker who is good, but no better than what we already have in Martial. Havertz would be a really good signing, but again, we have Bruno. As it stands, we also have three goalkeepers on our books who are better than anything they have.
Chelsea do however have superior squad depth to us and it is this above anything else that may have them finishing above us. We knew this anyway though.
Up to now they have signed a Luke Shaw level left back, a soon to be 36 year old centre half on a free, another centre half who isn't going to play, a right winger who you wouldn't compromise Greenwood's talent/the possible acquisition of Sancho for and a striker who is good, but no better than what we already have in Martial. Havertz would be a really good signing, but again, we have Bruno. As it stands, we also have three goalkeepers on our books who are better than anything they have.
Chelsea do however have superior squad depth to us and it is this above anything else that may have them finishing above us. We knew this anyway though.
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I will be surprised if this turns out to be a good move. It's a long time since he has played at this level regularly.
I don’t see the hype and excitement with this signing. This is on par with us signing Laurent Blanc in his twilight period.
Silva has been a great player in his career. But having had his peak years in Italy and then going to the farmers league in recent years.
I honestly would not be surprised if he struggles and ends up a flop in the premier league. The league is faster and more intense than ever before. He’s got a huge challenge ahead of him.
Silva has been a great player in his career. But having had his peak years in Italy and then going to the farmers league in recent years.
I honestly would not be surprised if he struggles and ends up a flop in the premier league. The league is faster and more intense than ever before. He’s got a huge challenge ahead of him.
I disagree, Maguire just is nowhere near as slow as you think he is, I’ve seen him this season complete in leg races against some quick players including Vardy and come on top. He’s got a massive frame and doesn’t turn quickly but he’s actually quick once he unwinds which I think was shown in the fastest Utd player stats too. It’s a myth that he’s slow.
I’d agree that Silva at his peak was very quick but as I’ve said he’s now 36, he will have lost loads of pace. You quote the final but he was well protected in that game, on one occasion Lewandoski rinsed him for pace and he’s hardly rapid. I think it will he shock just how much slower he is these days.
I struggle to see this notion that Chelsea are now going to be comfortably miles ahead of us with their signings now. Despite their signings I don’t expect them to pull away at all. I still expect us to finish above them. Especially if we sign Sancho.
It’s easy to forget the first half of our season was a write off because of the lack of Pogba, Bruno and limited Greenwood time. And then Rashford and Martial for large periods.
head to head, I still think our eleven is better in quality than theirs.
That's what I thought. Chelsea with good attacking reinforcement might not need too many chances like last season to score. So not need to play too open to force the chance after chance to score.
Lampard naturally look like attacking coach but need to go bit cautious at least at start until get defensive stability.
It's about filling in the weaknesses. We weren't a bad team last year, just a flawed one. The new guys go a massive way to strengthening where we needed it (Silva being a great temporary fix until Sarr or the existing younger guys are ready). We'll still need another top drawer striker after this season, and maybe a few more positions depending on how the new guys all bed in, but it puts us in a really strong position to become title challengers for the next 5 years or so (after a season of settling in).
The fastest and most intense team in Europe is Bayern Munich and he's just repelled them brilliantly in his last game. That's the same Bayern that bulldoezed past two of England's best teams. The difference with Blanc is that he was terminally slow so always going to be more vulnerable at his age, especially moving to the best team in the country in a Stam-led team used to playing a high line.
He's certainly very fast at coming up with new excuses for evading justice.
