José Mourinho believes Thiago Silva’s absence in Tuesday night’s semi-final clash against Germany is greater than the loss of Neymar.
Brazil are without their two most important players for their last four clash on Tuesday due to injury and suspension and the Chelsea manager has been reviewing the importance of both players.
He believes Luiz Felipe Scolari’s team are built on a solid defence and losing Silva through suspension will be detrimental to their whole team display.
Daily Mail quoted Mourinho, who told Yahoo: “Brazil needs him (Neymar) because he’s that individual player that can win one against ones and unbalance situations for the opponent and score a goal.
“He’s fantastic also in the service for the set pieces. But I would say that Thiago Silva in this moment is so more important than Neymar in the team.
“His absence is an important absence because Brazil’s game is based on their defensive structure where Thiago Silva gives great stability to the team.”
The Portuguese coach feels Bayern Munich’s Dante is the most likely candidate to replace Silva because he will be familiar with several members of the Germany team.
Mourinho added: “They have Henrique and Dante as an option to play – maybe because Dante plays in Germany and in the same team as every one of the other German players, he is the elected one but Thiago is an important player for them.”
