Manchester City’s over-reliance on David Silva exposed in first defeat

Manchester City’s first defeat of this Premier League season, the 4-3 loss to Liverpool at Anfield, exposed the leaders’ over-reliance on David Silva.

Kevin De Bruyne, Kevin De Bruyne and more Kevin De Bruyne. Watch any Manchester City game this season and a commentator or pundit will be waxing lyrical about KDB.

Yet as good as De Bruyne has been, he’s not City’s best player. The distinction belongs to David Silva.

City’s playmaker was super-sized conspicuous by his absence during the Citizen’s first defeat, the 4-3 reversal against Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday.

The loss ended City’s bid to match Arsenal’s unbeaten league season from 2003-04. It also exposed how ordinary the champions-elect look without Silva.

Silva was left on the bench after he suffered a stomach bug, according to presenter Matt Critchley. Silva has also missed matches during the last few months to deal with a family matter.

City don’t click with the same fluency in the final third when Silva is unavailable.

His importance in attacking areas was underlined by manager Pep Guardiola’s decision to drop De Bruyne slightly deeper this season. With Ilkay Gundogan taking Silva’s place at Anfield, De Bruyne was pushed further forward and asked to be the chief creator.

The experiment did not produce results, as Nick Wright of Sky Sports showed using statistics from Opta:

"De Bruyne had created 18 chances for Aguero before Sunday – twice as many as any other Manchester City combination – but he did not fashion a single one at Anfield. It was only the fourth time in 23 Premier League appearances that he has failed to create a chance this season.With Aguero closely marshalled in front of him and red shirts closing in on him whenever he had the ball, De Bruyne only completed 26 of his 37 passes in the opposition half – giving him his second-lowest completion rate in any Premier League game all season.According to Opta, De Bruyne had 73 touches in total and lost the ball 24 times – meaning he surrendered possession with 32.9 per cent of his touches – a higher percentage than in any other Premier League game this season. For Aguero, the numbers added up to limited service."

It’s easy to believe Silva would have made more of his touches in key areas. The 32-year-old Spaniard would also have quickened the pace of City’s approach play which was too often predictable and sluggish on Merseyside.

Speeding up the combinations of passes between triangles of players so representative of Guardiola’s game is what makes Silva so influential. His pass-and-move style is a quick-witted brand of football that gets City’s most dangerous players involved more often.

The main difference between Silva and De Bruyne is the latter is more boom-or-bust. One reason De Bruyne provides as many assists as he does, is because he plays so many through passes and teases in so many crosses.

It’s an admirable trait, but packed defenses and the law of averages says even the best players are going to get more of those passes wrong than right. When De Bruyne gets them right, City usually score, but for all the others he gets wrong, the Citizens give the ball away cheaply.

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Guardiola’s team is able to compensate for the feast-or-famine tendencies of their gifted No. 17 by relying on a player who recycles possession more often and in a more efficient manner. Silva plays further forward, but he is the true controlling force in this City team.

“Control” is a word Stuart Brennan of the Manchester Evening News used when summing up why Silva was missed on Sunday. Brennan noted how Gundogan couldn’t replicate Silva’s consistency.

The over-reliance on Silva for creative control is a tough problem for Guardiola to solve. It perhaps explains the interest in Arsenal contract rebel Alexis Sanchez, with the Chilean forward as adept at creating chances as he is at taking them.

Yet City have now ended their interest in Sanchez, clearing the way for rivals Manchester United to wrap up a deal. BBC Sport’s Simon Stone explains why:

Guardiola is better served looking for his heir apparent to Silva, rather than a new member for an already potent forward line. The process may have already started.

Spanish source Mundo Deportivo (h/t Richard Forrester of The Sun) recently linked City with Nice midfielder Jean-Michel Seri. He’s a player with the vision and technique to boss matches between the midfield and forward lines, making him an obvious potential successor for Silva.

Guardiola tried to acquire a replacement in waiting when he signed Bernardo Silva from Monaco for £43.6 million in the summer. The Portugal international currently plays best on the wing, though, despite having characteristics seemingly suited for central areas.

City need a true replacement for David Silva, since their best player is now aging and on a contract set to expire in 2020.

More important, the would-be champions just aren’t themselves without him.