Or Silva's initial approach was a bit "insubordinate", but ultimately Nesta and Thiago Silva admired each other. In a previous media interview, Nesta once said: "The best defender in the world today is my wrong Silva, and Barcelona's Pique." Compared to Nella's choice, Nesta has eliminated Vidic. In just two years, Silva has used his strength to conquer AC Milan. Although Nesta will still be effective at AC Milan next season, as he himself said, his professional life is nearing its end. Now, Silva has become AC Milan's "new Nesta", and AC Milan needs a "next Thiago Silva". AC Milan defeated Bologna 1-0, and this is already the third consecutive game where AC Milan did not concede a goal. This is also the 17th time this season that the Rossoneri have kept a clean sheet in the league, and in 16 of these 17 games, Thiago Silva started (this does not include the home game against Chievo, where AC Milan conceded after Silva left), and in the 5 league games this season where Silva did not play, there were goals conceded in 4 of them. This means that in the league games where the Brazilian started, AC Milan kept a clean sheet in 53% of the games, while in the games where he did not play, AC Milan kept a clean sheet in only 20% of the games, the difference is that obvious. In this game, it seemed like AC Milan had little defensive pressure, but Opta recorded 9 interceptions by Thiago Silva. In the 21st minute, Mutarelli made two consecutive passes on the right wing, both blocked by the Brazilian. At 22 minutes, Ekdale's low pass was intercepted by the Brazilian. Mejorini had no choice but to push Silva from behind and was penalized for a foul. At 31 minutes, Ambrosini made a mistake in midfield and was hit back, Ekdale's through ball had already surpassed Zambrotta, but Thiago Silva suddenly appeared and intercepted the ball before Mejorini, showing good anticipation, winning applause from the stands. At 37 minutes, Mejorini made another effort, but this time his shot from the edge of the box after breaking free from Zambrotta was again blocked by Silva. As All Market put it, with Silva there, Mejorini was left with only a "shadow". In fact, more experts believe that Thiago Silva is the key to AC Milan's excellent performance this season. Former Italian international and Roma player Sebino Nela said in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport: "Thiago Silva, along with Pique and Vidic, is one of the three best central defenders in the world. In the past year, he has made great progress. I think he is AC Milan's most critical player this season, a great star." Former teammate Maldini said: "Silva is the strongest in the world in terms of tackling and defensive positioning, because I trained with him, so I am not surprised by his growth. He has extraordinary talent, but at that time he liked to fight alone, now, he has learned to cooperate with his teammates. AC Milan is the only team in Serie A this season with a stable defense, Thiago has position sense, technique, speed, and responsibility, and still has room for improvement." As Maldini said, Thiago Silva has been improving all the time. Although he was already outstanding when he first joined AC Milan, in the past two years, he has become even more refined and lively. Talking about his own progress, Silva frankly admitted that he benefited a lot from being around Nesta, "Nesta is unique," Silva said, "Now, I am learning to take over his legacy (laughs). Now, without Nesta on the field, I am very calm, whereas last season, I would feel lacking in confidence and panic. On the field, we communicate a lot, he is like a machine," Silva also revealed a small episode between him and Nesta, "I still remember my first game at AC Milan, when a headache affected my performance, he kept criticizing me, after a while, I got a bit angry and told him: 'Please shut up, because I am playing while sick.' But now I am already used to it (laughs)." Not only Mejorini, but Divaio, who has already scored 19 goals this season, also could not get any chances in front of Silva. At 77 minutes, Bologna's midfield sent a penetrating through pass that reached behind Nesta, Divaio turned just as he was about to receive the ball, but Silva had already come up, having anticipated the pass, making Divaio unable to gain speed, Abbiati then easily got the ball, this successful defense again won a round of applause. All Market gave Flamini, who scored the only goal of the game, 7 points, which was not unexpected, but Silva's 7 points are enough to show how brilliant his performance was on the defensive side. All Market commented: "This is no longer surprising, the Brazilian defender showed his textbook-like defense, restricting Bologna's forwards."