Lucas Silva left out of Marseille Europa League squad

Lucas Silva is failing to convince Marseille manager Míchel that he deserves a run in the first team and was recently booed by fans after a string of uninspiring performances for the Ligue 1 side. On Friday, Míchel took the decision to omit the on-loan Real Madrid midfielder from the list of players to compete in the Europa League.

Silva, 22, joined Madrid from Cruzeiro in January 2015 for a fee of 13 million euros. However, he played only a handful of games under Carlo Ancelotti, starting just four, and did not feature in Rafa Benítez’s plans for the first team when the Spaniard took over at the Bernabéu last summer. When he was signed, Silva had just been named the best defensive midfielder in the Brazilian top flight as Cruzeiro won the league and he was seen as a viable option to replace Luka Modric in the side when the Croatian was sidelined by injury. But after a few low-key showings Silva gradually slipped down the pecking order to the extent that he featured for just 25 minutes over the course of Real’s last seven Liga matches of the 2014-15 season.

Last summer Silva was loaned to Marseille for the season when Marcelo Bielsa was in charge at the Vélodrome, the Ligue 1 side paying a fee of 650,000 euros for the player’s services. Bielsa left abruptly at after the season had started and was replaced by Míchel, under whom Silva has made 27 appearances in all competitions but has failed to score or provide a single assist. Despite a bright start to his time at the club he has gradually fallen out of favour and has played just 79 minutes in Marseille’s last five matches.

It was rumoured that Silva may be returned to Madrid early but in the end he remained in France. Míchel’s team travel to Spain to play Athletic Bilbao in the last 32 in two weeks’ time but Silva will remain in Marseille.