Rio Ferdinand believes Thiago Silva is no longer able to play in a back four for Chelsea after their 1-0 defeat to Arsenal on Sunday afternoon.
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The Gunners strengthened their Premier League title credentials with an impressive win at Stamford Bridge.
Graham Potter chose to play a back four for the London derby, pairing Silva alongside Trevoh Chalobah at the heart of Chelsea’s defence.
But while Ferdinand believes Arsenal beat a weakened Chelsea side, the former Manchester United centre-back says Potter should no longer play Silva if he doesn’t use a three-man defence.
‘It wasn’t even their first team,’ Ferdinand said on Vibe With Five. ‘Six of those players don’t play when everyone’s fit. Kepa is the number-one goalkeeper now, Reece James, Ben Chilwell, Koulibaly, Fofana, Kante, they all start, am I lying or not?
‘It was their second team, it was their B team. It’s the third time they’ve played a back four.
When co-host Stephen Howson said: ‘I don’t need to watch the game to know you can’t play Thiago Silva in a back four. Everyone knows this’, Ferdinand replied: ‘I agree’.
Ferdinand also believes Chelsea’s owners need to show patience with Potter and has warned fans that there ‘will be a bit of pain on the journey’.
‘New owners want their manager, they want their guy in charge. ‘I spoke to him [Tuchel] immediately after it, disappointed, obviously, because he absolutely loved it at Chelsea. Loved being in London, loved his life, loved the club, had a project he believed in 100 per cent, recruited all the players in the summer and thought, ‘right, we’re going along with it’.
‘Quite quickly he realised that things weren’t going to be as rosy as he’d imagined they would be and that he maybe wasn’t going to get the time he thought he may have earnt given what he’d done since he came through the door, winning the Champions League. Conversations were being had then all of a sudden, bang, he’s off.
‘I think these new owners are businessmen, they’re not football people, they’re business guys. They’ve got a big media background, big influencers around them in that field and they’re trying to merge that with football, but also very data driven, that’s just looking on the outside and murmurings I’m hearing.
‘They want the input of data, they want their input and the technical staff behind the scenes to marry up with the manager, they don’t want the manager of having their own idea of how things go and the people at the club have maybe got a different idea, maybe that might have been the big difference.
‘They’ve got a manager now who they’ve given their ideas to and who’s probably agreed to it and said, ‘yes, that’s what I like as well’, but also, ‘this is how it needs to run from my perspective’. They’ve merged that together and had a good, positive conversation and got to a point where they say Potter is the man.
‘I believe in Potter as a coach, forget everything else, in the way he coaches and can make a team play football, if you looked at the way his Brighton team the way that they play, you’d go, ‘this guy is a coach among coaches’. In that aspect, you’re delighted.
‘It’s just the recruitment and the controlling, the carrying of big players, and making sure the recruitment stands alongside the principles of the way he wants to coach,. If that marries up and they believe in the project long term then you’ve got a good chance.
‘The new owners, time will let us know. But, it’s the same as what we’re saying about Man United at Chelsea, you’ve got to understand there’s going to be noise outside and there’s going to be a bit of pain on the journey, can you stick with it?’
