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The Blues boss trusts his senior recruit despite his mistake at West Brom and his inability to speak English yet.
Frank Lampard has defended Thiago Silva after the defender was questioned as to whether his inability to speak English represented a problem for Chelsea.
The 36-year-old signing from Paris Saint-Germain made his Premier League debut as captain in Chelsea’s 3-3 draw against West Brom on Saturday, but made a mistake by allowing Callum Robinson to score the second goal when the Baggies finally left. 3-0 up.
The Blues would produce a comeback to win a 3-3 draw with Silva running late to Olivier Giroud as Lampard took an all-out attack approach.
With captain César Azpilicueta stepping in and removing the Brazilian international’s bracelet, Lampard was questioned whether Silva can lead without speaking English.
“I’m not sure how relative it was today, but he doesn’t speak the language very well,” Cheslea’s manager said at a Zoom news conference. “It is something we will work on because it is what it is.
“He hasn’t had time. Thiago shows up here pretty cool and he’s in and around us. You will learn it quickly; I’m sure some players speak the languages that he speaks in the squad.
“He speaks French, being the main one, but here we have guys who speak Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish and Italian so one is again, if the language is a small barrier, we need time to work. That is what we have in front of us.
“We have already seen that leadership and people are going to want to talk about the second goal and that is fair play and that is the nature of being the best player that has been his entire career, but at the same time, we saw what his leadership is like and his qualities and we are going to see more of that ”.
Despite the dramatic comeback, much of the attention after the game was on the poor first half that saw Chelsea opponents rampant despite being one of the favorites for relegation this season.
Marcos Alonso received criticism from Lampard after the game, while as a whole, the Blues were poor defensively.
Lampard recently admitted that club legend Petr Cech is training with Chelsea goalkeepers to help solve the problems with Kepa Arrizabalaga. Lampard said he would not bring in a club legend to help the defense, but wants simple errors to be eliminated on set pieces.
“No,” he said simply when asked about another legend before talking about the mistakes as a whole. “I was relating a lot to the set pieces goal because that’s something that is not difficult.
“Sometimes there may be areas of the field that could look different or the shape of the team. But on set pieces, we have meetings about who marks who, if you let someone fall from behind and have the freedom to score a goal, then it is a clear error “.
West Brom manager Slaven Bilic backed Lampard’s assessment of Silva, saying the veteran defender will adapt quickly to the Premier League.
“Some need time players, yes, but for Thiago Silva not,” said Bilic. “Thiago Silva was captain of Brazil, he played for Milan and PSG. Now he’s at Chelsea but he doesn’t need to [time], is a first level player.
“Knowing Frank and he is a very serious guy, a high quality coach, I don’t think Silva needs time. [The] The Premier League is a world league, not an English league. I think players can make that kind of mistake on their 45th mistake.
“He made a mistake; he has made very few in his career. Maybe one in every 100 games at PSG. It has nothing to do with age or his debut in the Premier League.”
