Thiago Silva struggled in Chelsea’s 4-2 defeat to Wolves on Sunday (AFP via Getty)
Ian Wright admits he was ‘surprised’ by Mauricio Pochettino’s decision to play Thiago Silva in Chelsea’s 4-2 defeat to Wolves and believes the Brazilian was left exposed.
The loss at Stamford Bridge on Sunday has left Chelsea 11th in the Premier League and closer to the relegation zone than a top-four spot.
Chelsea’s players were booed off at half time and full time during their loss to Wolves, while Thiago Silva’s wife appeared to call for Pochettino’s dismissal after the game as she wrote on social media platform X: ‘It’s time to change. If you wait any longer it will be too late.’
Thiago Silva struggled to cope with Pedro Neto’s pace during the game and Wright feels Chelsea’s players are not given enough tactical structure by Pochettino.
‘You want to see some structure and some good performances, I was very surprised that he played Thiago Silva,’ Wright said on The Kelly and Wrighty Show.
‘When you look at Wolves, Gary O’Neil’s got to get a lot of credit for how he sets his teams up and how meticulous he is in the plan, what they’re going to do, the counter-attack, Neto and Cunha, and you’ve got Thiago Silva, where’s the protection?
‘Then you’ve got the midfield, with [Moises] Caicedo, with Enzo [Fernandez], with Conor Gallagher, I don’t know where’s the stability, where’s the management of the game from the midfield to bring the front men in.
Ian Wright believes Chelsea’s midfield has’stability’ under Mauricio Pochettino (Getty)
‘[Mykhailo] Mudryk, from the time I’ve seen him when he first got here when he looked so scintillating in that Liverpool game, you’re thinking, ‘wow, when Pochettino gets this guy and starts to really tell him what places to move in, he’s going to be dangerous’. Nothing… nothing’s improved at Chelsea. It’s really surprising because I’m thinking that Poch was the guy to do it.
‘I think he’s not stupid, with everything that’s going on, with what Chelsea are trying to attain, Chelsea want to get back to where Chelsea were at the big table. At the moment Mauricio Pochettino is a million miles from anywhere, we don’t even know what his style of play is.
‘I don’t think it helps for players’ wives to be tweeting stuff like that. I don’t know what’s gone on there, that’s not the thing you want to see because he’s under enough pressure.
‘I doesn’t seem to me if he looks like he can get out of this situation because I think we would’ve seen a lot more by now.
‘He’s got the players there to make something happen in respect of a structure. We’ve seen it happen with people like [Roberto] De Zerbi, [Andoni] Iraola, people like that, [Unai] Emery, and put a style of play in which as much as you’re young, you can get it. Then you start getting a bit of success with that, then the team gets confidence and you start winning games. The team has got nothing like that.
‘When you go somewhere like Chelsea, it was happening to Man United for a while, I’m quite interested to see with United because they seem to have the players in place to play their way out of it. When you look at a team that do not know how they’ll play and you’ve got a team who are organised, no matter where they are, if Chelsea are at home and people say Stamford Bridge will be tough, you play for a certain amount of time and you’re structured and they’re not, they will make spaces because they’re undisciplined, they don’t know where they are. That’s why the Premier League’s so ruthless, if you’re not coming with a plan you’re going to get beaten by anyone.’
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