Leicester City's Thiago Silva admires Leicester City's Thiago Silva.
"Leicester's Thiago Silva, who has been taking captaincy advice from Chelsea's Thiago Silva, has told the Brazilian that he is "almost old enough to be my father"," reported Goal.com on Tuesday.
Thiago Silva is not a tall center back, but he defends with a unique combination of football intelligence, positioning, leaping and quickness. When defending, he is at his best one-on-one, making clean tackles and using his anticipation to make interceptions with a slight extension of his foot. He also has the build-up ability of a modern center back.
The 39-year-old began his career at AC Milan. He's been with the club since 2009 and was considered a key part of the Milan team until the 2011/12 season, when he wore the captain's armband and helped them win the title back from Inter Milan in 2010/11.
He moved to Paris Saint-Germain in 2012 at the height of his powers and immediately established himself as one of the best center backs in the French Ligue 1. He stayed with the club until the 2019/20 season, scoring 17 goals and providing eight assists in 315 games and winning seven league titles, although they failed to win the Champions League.
He joined Chelsea in 2020 looking for a new challenge and was expected to be a regular substitute due to his age, but he was a shining light in the Chelsea defense, leading the Blues defense with two goals in 36 games and achieving the dream of winning the Champions League with Thomas Tuchel and Paris.
He played a lot of games in the 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons as the team crashed and burned, with some people saying he was overworked at his age, and he was named Chelsea Player of the Year in 2022/23, even though the team finished 12th.
In the 2023/24 season, he's still a key player. He has started all 12 Premier League games this season, having been a regular since preseason.
His contract expires next summer, but the 39-year-old Silva is believed to be considering whether to play beyond 2024.
England international fullback Leigh James has taken over the Chelsea captain's armband for the 2023/24 season. At 23 years old, James is still very inexperienced, but he has played over 150 games for Chelsea and earned 16 caps for the national team.
James is happy to be able to tap into the wisdom of Thiago Silva, 39. James told Chelsea's official website, "It's been great to be captain, but it's been difficult when I'm not in form 사설토토 because it's hard to have much of an impact on the team when you're not always in the team. Thiago is my biggest support whenever I'm unsure or need advice," he said.
He continued, "He's almost old enough to be my dad. So he's the one I go to the most. It's hard to say what kind of captain I am, but so far it's been a lot of fun. It's an honor."
James, who has struggled with fitness issues over the past few years, claimed to be in better shape than he has been for a while since returning from injury. He said: "I definitely feel my fitness coming back. I've been able to play consistently recently. I haven't played a full 90 minutes yet, but I'm training and playing hard to push my limits every day. I'm happy to be able to help the team again."
He concluded, "After almost three months, it takes time to build back up and find my form. Some people think that as soon as you come back you should be back to your old level, but it doesn't work like that. You have to take it slow and steady. I'm slowly making progress."
