I would have been a supporter of Silva.
I've liked his tactics and style of play in previous incarnations.
He's got a big sorting out process to go through (which him and Brands started in the last window).
And he's been both lucky and unlucky with injuries, ie the injuries have actually helped in assessing others who might not otherwise have got the game time.
And bc of this he needs time before being judged.
BUT have major doubts based on what he did today, in a match that was very important to win, a match with significant momentum swing - leap Man U and Arsenal into 7th spot or lose against the bottom side.
1. He picked Schniederlin who has off field concerns; a player who is suspect as is, let alone turning up without his head in the game.
2. He realised his mistake and compounded it by bringing on Bernard, leaving a massive hole for the opposition to dance in and around and pass with ease, leaving youngters Holgate and Kenny completely exposed - I would love to have known the instructions he gave Bernard at half time to verify or not what a horrendous decision this was, or did Bernard just not take any notice of him.
2A. You cannot play two wing backs like Digne and Kenny without protection/and or dominate possession. You can't do this if your relying on Gana to make sure the side keeps the ball. It was reckless by Silva.
3. What makes 2 even worse is he selected DCL to play in the left half space with Digne providing width. Digne did amazing considering what he was asked to do - defend and provide the attacking width pretty much on his own. When Bernard came on and into the half space DCL didn't have a clue what he was meant to be doing, if he had any before. He is not a LW and never will be. A poor selection by Silva and he didn't attempt to resolve it during the match.
The match would have been very different imo if he had replaced Frauderlin with Davies and moved DCL to CF, replacing Tosun with Bernard, keeping the extra sub for injuries which should of been Dowell for Walcott.
Even though many of their performances were woeful today, the players gave everything.
And while the fume is totally justifiable Silva deserve to cop a lot of the blame.
Hopefully Silva can learn a lot from today.
