David Silva is widely regarded as one of, if not the best player in Manchester City’s history.
The attacking midfielder left the Etihad having won 11 major trophies,
including four Premier League titles.
Real Sociedad, the club Silva joined in the summer,
sit top of La Liga after nine games. Silva has two assists and one goal and has made
more passes into the penalty area than any player who’s completed more than three games.
Meanwhile, Manchester City went into the international break in 10th position having
drawn three games and lost one. While there’s no doubt their squad still possesses huge quality,
the side are missing Silva’s abilities.
While Silva was in the side under Pep Guardiola, City lined up mostly in a 4-3-3. Silva and Kevin
De Bruyne played as so-called 10/8s – as central midfielders who spent a lot of time
pushing forwards aggressively into the half or central spaces in the opponent’s defensive third.
This allowed City to create the 2-3-5 shape in possession
that meant they could create lots of passing triangles in areas that could harm the opposition,
with the full backs tucking inside to hold alongside Fernandinho.
Both De Bruyne and Silva are, crucially, excellent pressers, and this allowed City
to maintain pressure on the opposition high up the pitch. But creatively, they are different
types of midfielder. Silva is associated with a quality called ‘La Pausa’ in Spanish, the ability
to hold the ball, draw the opposition, and then play subtle, intelligent passes to open space.
Silva was a more metronomic passer too, with lots of volume and shorter passes,
while De Bruyne was more dynamic, trying riskier passes and crosses from the half-space.
This table clearly illustrates the differences between two players
occupying very similar positions in the Manchester City 4-3-3. Taking
both players’ averages from the 2017/18 season to the 2019/20 season, they are
almost equal for assists per 90. But Silva is significantly higher in overall pass volume,
while De Bruyne contributes almost twice as many long passes, over four times as many crosses,
and slightly more progressive passes – these are passes that enter the penalty area or move
the ball 10 yards towards the opposition goal and are not in the defensive 40% of the pitch.
As well as being two different players with different strengths,
the loss of Silva has caused a radical adjustment in Manchester City’s shape.
Although Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden are fine players, they are more like De Bruyne
in terms of dynamism, rather than controlling possession through high volumes of passing.
To mitigate this, Guardiola has largely selected a double pivot of Rodri and Ilkay Gundogan,
which does give City a 4-2-3-1 shape in possession, with De Bruyne pushing higher.
As these visualisation from Twenty3 show, the passing network and shape of Manchester
City has changed enormously from the three seasons 2017/18 to 2019/20, and this season.
Why is this? It’s mostly because of personnel. Gundogan lacks the physicality of De Bruyne or,
indeed, Fernandinho, and neither he nor Rodri seem to suit acting as a single pivot,
screening the defence, and this means both play together and deeper. They are both fine players
and passers of the ball from deep, but this denies City the same presence further up the pitch.
Even if either player could work as a single pivot, neither Foden nor Bernardo Silva possesses
David Silva’s ability to hold off on passing until the player is drawn; both are more dynamic.
While this could work, with either acting as a second 10/8 alongside De Bruyne,
City would perhaps lack the passing control that Guardiola has usually built his systems
around – it would also likely leave City too defensively porous through the middle.
That leaves Guardiola with limited options – despite the players he has
at his disposal being of high quality, they cannot replicate his successful 4-3-3 system
and style as easily as when David Silva was a key part of the side.
That has meant that Guardiola has relied increasingly on De Bruyne pushing up to
support the striker, and his physicality and dynamism are underappreciated qualities
when considered alongside his passing range.
He possesses the attributes to be a genuine box-to-box midfielder, as well as a 10,
but this all-round ability, alongside the limitations of his midfield colleagues,
has caused City to lean too heavily on De Bruyne’s abilities to change a game in their favour.
Without David Silva, De Bruyne must take on City’s creative functions
largely on his own. And apart from De Bruyne’s three assists,
no City player has more than one – all of these are from wide players, too:
one each from Ferran Torres, Riyad Mahrez, Joao Cancelo, and Raheem Sterling. City cannot
suffocate teams high up the pitch and pick their way through defences. They have to rely on pace
and running now, which is a significant departure from Guardiola’s preferred style of play.
The absence of David Silva and, crucially, the inability of anyone else in the squad
to replicate his set of abilities, has changed City’s shape and how they attack.
And so far, it’s not been for the better.