"The thing with Silva is that we have been able to work with him only a couple of days at a time since he arrived. He had just signed for us when he went off with his national team to play in Mexico [during the August international break]. Then he came back and very quickly was off again with the national team again, this time to play in Argentina – another long trip.
"I thought he did very well when he came on [Silva was an 85th-minute substitute in the 1-1 draw against Blackburn Rovers on Saturday] but I always said that he would need time because it is very different here than playing in Spain. The internationals are over now and I think it will be time for him to play in the team from the next game."
Good news, for sure. I must admit to being worried when Shaun Wright-Phillips started ahead of him on Saturday. Which league games would Silva play if not those at home against weaker opposition? But I suppose his international commitments have to be accounted for. (At the risk of sounding like Alan Green, a midweek international friendly in Buenos Aires, where all twenty-two starters and eight of the nine used substitutes play club football in Europe is ludicrous).
But Silva was so much more intelligent than anyone else who played on Saturday that giving him just five minutes seemed strange. Had he come on for SWP at half-time, say, it might have been a different game. I'm not getting worried about this yet - players do take to adjust to the pace of the Premier League, just look at the improvements in Luka Modrić or Samir Nasri. But I don't see how that improvement can come about without just a touch more trust from boss to player.
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