Thiago Silva urging Chelsea to ‘keep our head up’ and ‘change the future’

Thiago Silva passed a few milestones recently, playing in his 50th Chelsea match, making his 700th professional club appearance and 800th if you also count his senior national team appearances for Brazil. Point is, the man knows a thing or two about winning, losing, and moving forward from either.

And while he’s certainly won a lot more than he’s lost in his career, it’s the latter where we need his guidance and leadership right now, following a first defeat in a dozen matches in all competitions, but (more importantly) amid decreasing quality of play and focus.

“We gave them two goals. We have to take more care because that’s two or three matches now where we have given the opposition a goal. [...] It’s difficult to take this defeat but we must keep our heads up.

“[Football] is not an individual sport, it’s a collective one. We must keep our head up and get ready for the next match that’s coming, because we can’t change what’s happened, but we can change the future.”

-Thiago Silva; source: Chelsea FC

Silva’s message isn’t complicated but it doesn’t need to be. We just need to take it heart, take a breath, and get back to work. Nothing’s been lost, nothing’s been won. It’s all to play for. Change the future.

Silva himself (and a few others) could probably use a break after eight (8!) consecutive appearances (seven starts), but the various injuries are making that sort of workload management a bit tougher than usual. Zenit away on Wednesday could offer a fairly safe rotational opportunity, with Chelsea already assured of qualification for the Champions League knockout rounds.