Thiago Silva tips Roma for Serie A glory

Paris Saint-Germain defender Thiago Silva has tipped Roma to win Serie A this season and urged Mario Balotelli to improve his mentality if his former club Milan are to make an impact.

The 30-year-old Brazilian spent three seasons playing at San Siro and thinks this could be the year Juventus are dethroned in Italy after four straight Scudetto successes.

Thiago Silva backed Rudi Garcia’s men as the most likely title winners following the transfer window and also outlined where Milan need to improve if they are to be contenders.

“Roma have found what was missing with Edin Dzeko and Juventus are in difficulty after their many departures,” he told Gazzetta dello Sport.

“We will see how the other rivals integrate their new signings. Roma have a shot, while with Juventus I see it being hard to succeed when they are replacing three decisive players like Andrea Pirlo, Arturo Vidal and Carlos Tevez.

“Paul Pogba has been and is a great player for them, but he needs to make some improvements defensively.”

On Milan, the PSG captain continued: “Sinisa Mihajlovic is a great professional, but the team has to start grinding out good performances when they have two players like Carlos Bacca and Luiz Adriano in attack.

“Balotelli we know is strong but he must improve off the field, and [Stephan] El Shaarawy is at Monaco to regain self-confidence.”