Gilberto Silva - Style of Play

Style of Play

Gilberto is often called "the invisible wall" in Brazil. His play often goes unnoticed as he positions himself between the two centre backs and the rest of midfield, breaking up opposition attacks before they gather momentum. In this role, he is a part of the defensive unit for both club and country. As Arsenal and Brazil are both attack minded teams, he offers cover for attacking wing-backs and other midfielders who have a poor record of dropping back to help the defence. When playing, Gilberto occasionally drops into the centre of defence to cover the central defenders, usually Lúcio for Brazil and Kolo Touré for Arsenal, who are both known for their attacking runs forward with the ball. Gilberto's style of defending is unlike that of normal midfield enforcers; whereas some midfielders such as Robbie Savage and Roy Keane are very strong in the challenge, Gilberto is more passive when he defends. Rather than tackle a player, he is more likely to shadow him, thus pushing him back. As a result, he has an unusually clean record for a defensive midfielder: he has twice gone 45 games or more without receiving a single booking during his Arsenal career.

Gilberto is good at helping to defend against opponents who play a long ball game because he often man marks the opposition's attacking target-man. This cuts off the opposition's supply to the strikers, and thus forces the long-ball team to play through the midfield, something to which long-ball teams are not particularly suited.

Despite Gilberto's high pass completion rate, his passing has been described as erratic in the past. A possible explanation for this is Gilberto's short passing range. He is more likely to offload the ball frequently to midfield players close around him, such as Cesc Fàbregas, thus easily gaining a high pass completion rate. These short-range passes often go unnoticed, while relatively infrequent long-range incomplete passes often receive negative attention, although not enough to significantly lower his overall pass completion rate.

According to ProZone (a data analysis system used by football managers) figures cited by The Sunday Times in January 2007, Gilberto was, together with Paul Scholes of Manchester United and Frank Lampard of Chelsea, one of the few midfielders in England to attain "the elite Champions League level" of performance.