Thiago Silva has won the Chelsea player of the year award and the players’ player of the year award.
There were not many great candidates after a horrible season, and it feels a little like Silva has won more out of respect for his class and his pedigree than anything else.
If nobody deserves it for the season, give it to someone for their career, effectively.
Silva has had the worst year of his 3 at Chelsea, but was still a deserving winner, showing how desperate things have been this season. His usually dominant role in the middle of a 3 was constantly shifted around by different managers, into different formations alongside different partners. None of that is helpful for a centre back.
He made 26 starts, winning an average of 1.5 tackles per game, 1.3 interceptions per game, plus 1.1 blocks. As always he was immaculate in possession, making the third most passes on the team per game (75.2), and completing a team leading 91.3% of them. He made more mistakes than he has in previous seasons, but a lack of a confident goalkeeper behind him was always going to hurt him.
Still, given how bad pretty much everyone else in the squad was, he’s a worthy winner. He will be here for at least one more year, and we expect him to be back to his best once this side regains any semblance of structure.
