‘He absolutely walks into that bracket of top centre backs’: Frank Lampard lavishes praise on Thiago Silva… but calls for veteran defender to lead Chelsea to trophies to put him in the Premier League elite
- Frank Lampard’s Chelsea have kept five clean sheets in a row in all competitions
- New centre-back Thiago Silva is making an immediate difference in west London
- Lampard wants Silva to bring more to his game at Stamford Bridge this season
- The Chelsea boss claims Silva needs to bring trophies to the club to be the best
Frank Lampard insists Thiago Silva is without doubt one of the best centre backs in the world.
But the Chelsea manager feels the Brazilian needs to help the club win trophies to put him on the same pedestal as the best Premier League defenders in recent years.
Silva, 36, has played a big part in transforming a Chelsea defence that was shaky at the start of the season but has now kept five successive clean sheets ahead of Saturday’s home game against Sheffield United.
Chelsea’s Frank Lampard thinks Thiago Silva (above) is one of the best defenders in the world
Lampard’s Blues have kept five clean sheets in a row ahead of this weekend’s games
Lampard said of Silva, who has almost 30 trophies for club and country: ‘In terms of his career, he absolutely walks into that bracket of top centre backs.
‘I keep talking about the impact he is having, and he can be a big deal for us, but we need more.
‘We are talking about teams that have won things and we are striving for that.’
Meanwhile, Lampard has issued an impassioned plea for more to be done to support football’s victims of dementia.
‘It’s something that concerns me,’ Lampard said. ‘It is causing a lot of suffering for families.
‘These great players, people that I look up to, we have to support them.’
Lampard (right) has called on Silva (left) to do more at Stamford Bridge after a promising start