19 September 2023 , 21:34
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Chelsea star Thiago Silva has bemoaned his lack of Champions League football on social media.
The Brazilian veteran has played a key role for the Blues over the past few seasons but hasn’t had a particularly happy time of things in recent months. Chelsea finished 12th in the Premier League last term, their second lowest finish since the division’s reform.
It has left them without any European football of any kind, which came as a huge blow for the two-time winners of the Champions League. With the competition getting back underway on Tuesday evening for the 2023/24 season, Silva took to X - formerly Twitter - to share his disappointment at not playing in the competition.
He tagged the official Champions League profile in a post alongside a crying emoji and pinned that post to his own profile. Silva, 38, has played in the competition 14 seasons in succession and has made 105 appearances for the Blues, Paris Saint-Germain and AC Milan.
The Brazilian centre-back has also won the trophy once - during the 2020/21 season with Chelsea - but only played 39 minutes of the final against Manchester City before he was forced to be withdrawn through injury.
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He previously took aim at Chelsea owner Todd Boehly after the West London side were eliminated from the Champions League by Real Madrid last season. Silva said: "I think the first step has been made.
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"An incorrect step, but it has been made. We can't be blaming the managers if we don't take responsibility. It's a hard period for the club, with a lot of indecision.
"Change of ownership, new players arriving – we had to increase the size of the changing room because it didn't fit the size of the squad. A positive point is that there are amazing players in the squad but on the other hand there are always players that are going to be unhappy.
"There is always going to be someone upset because not everyone can play. The manager can only pick 11 from a squad of 30-something – that's tough. Some can't make the squad, we signed eight in January, we need to stop and put a strategy in place otherwise next season we could make the same mistakes."
Silva’s mood looks unlikely to have improved amid his side’s disappointing start to the new season. He was spotted regularly berating his teammates during last weekend’s draw with Bournemouth.
Speaking after the stalemate on the South Coast, Blues boss Mauricio Pochettino said: "We were talking with Thiago to be more relaxed because sometimes the defensive player wants to help the team to score and we need to be clever.
"Too many players are still learning about the game and that is constructing a new team and we need to improve. In these types of games when you are pushing, if you cannot win - you cannot lose."