Thiago Silva will be a HUGE miss for Chelsea, there are no two ways about it.
Not only does he bring calm and quality back, he is one of the few leaders we have on that team right now, and we all know how worrying that is and how it has negatively affected our results and performances.
Silva will be out for around 3-6 weeks now, depending on how quickly and well he can recover.
The way he was injured was typical of Silva and shows exactly what we will miss. He took a chance for the cause and to make one last tackle to stop a goal. He was literally bleeding blue, something I just wish our entire team would do regularly.
Wesley Fofana later replaced him and seemed quite reserved at first, then became more himself. Sometimes it’s difficult to come in early as a substitute, especially as a central defender and replacing a world-class player who is also the captain at the time. You know you have a big void to fill.
But I think Fofana will now have an ideal opportunity to step up and his confidence will only grow more.
We have to remember that Fofana is still a young player at 22 and now has a high price on his head.
But I really like what little I’ve seen of him so far, he certainly has that dog in him, and I think we’ll start to see a lot more of him now that he’s going to have a streak of starts. He has a great chance to shine now and win his usual place at Chelsea.
We all know his quality, we had grown used to seeing him regularly at Leicester City. And Chelsea will need him now more than ever. Graham Potter and us fans need Fofana now to really grow in his Chelsea shirt and stand his ground. In fact, we need all of our players to do this now, but Fofana’s position in this team has now become very important with Silva’s absence.
We will also need Benoit Badiashile, who is likely to be Fofana’s regular partner, or at least that’s what you’d expect. These two have experience of playing together before in French youth teams, and now they have a great opportunity to form a great central defense pairing at Chelsea.
It’s really difficult at the moment because the chips are down and there’s a big weight on Chelsea in general. But I’ve always said that the backbone of the team is VERY important, and Fofana can really become an important part of that backbone in the here and now. We need you to take responsibility and command that defense.
I have a lot of faith in him. Now he has a great opportunity and I know he will take advantage of it. He has a superior mindset and Chelsea need it.
