Replacing David Silva at Manchester City - Two Transfer Targets
We'll use stats and data to find two David Silva replacements for Manchester City.
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Manchester City has a big David Silva shaped hole in it’s midfield.
Since the Spaniard has left at the end of last season, City haven’t looked quite right.
In this article, we’re going to look at two players that could help fill that hole.
It’s important to know that I’m only looking at potential transfers here - not replacing Silva from within.
Finding How David Silva Plays
To find a David Silva replacement, we need to find out more about how he was used in City’s system.
Using data, we can see a player’s tendencies in a season and find their playing “style”. For this, I decided to use Silva’s 2018/19 season’s data. The main reason being is that Silva played nearly 1000 more minutes in 18/19 than he did in 19/20.
With that change in minutes, there were some outlier-type numbers, like how frequently Silve would shoot.
So the 18/19 season lined up a lot better with the rest of his career.
The following graph shows David Silva’s tendencies compared to other central midfielders. The numbers are on a 0-99 scale - so if you’re a 99 in something, it basically means that you complete that action more than everyone else in your position per minute of possession.
As you can see, he was an absolute beast when it came to link-up passing and receiving the ball in that box. Adding those two together means that he was an elite option throughout a team’s entire attack.
And, if we check out how he was used around the ground we can see a few distinct patterns.
For starters, Silva roamed around the pitch. A lot. He received the ball a lot in his own half for someone seen as an attacking mid.
However, he still did most of his damage on the left with shorter passes (the blue squares).
All in all, just an incredibly active player.
Honestly, the more I look into Silva’s impact number-wise, the more impressed I am.
He’s so underrated.
And don’t get me wrong, I’m a City fan - So I love David Silva, but I’ve only followed him as a fan, and this is the first time I’ve properly looked into his numbers.
Pretty staggering.
Even more staggering is the impact that Silva had on the pitch. SmarterScout also breaks a player’s actions into ball retention, attacking output, defending quality, and defending quantity.
Again, each is rated on a 0-99 scale.
We can see Silva was an absolute class act, and one of the best midfielders in the Premier League.
The high defending quality/low quantity tells me that Silva wasn’t expected to a lot defensively in regards to attempting defensive actions (tackles, blocks, interceptions), but was there to hold position and do the basics.
It looks like he was only really made to defend when he was sure he could win the ball.
His attacking output and ball retention were superb - one of the best in the Premier League.
David Silva Replacement One: Houssem Aouar
Maybe my favorite player to replace David Silva at Manchester City is the young French midfielder, Houssem Aouar.
If we take a quick look at his playing style, we can see that there’s a lot of similarities with Silva’s 2018/19 season - only with a higher tendency to shoot.
Aouar also dribbles a lot more frequently than Silva does (while attempting to get involved with link up passing less).
However, that isn’t a terrible fit - In Silva’s younger days he dribbled a lot more and it worked incredibly well in Pep’s system at City.
Looking at Aouar’s position map, we can see that he does dribble (purple squares) in a lot more positions throughout the pitch - some even within his own half.
There’s also a lot more dribbling on the edge of the 18-yard box.
Along with the extra dribbling we can see a lot more longer passes (yellow squares)
However, like in Silva’s graph, Houssem Aouar drifts left and that’s where he’s at his most dangerous.
Positionally, this should fit well at City.
Aouar’s numbers at Lyon also stack up really well if we try to compare them to the Premier League. Using some advanced algorithms at SmarterScout we can project what his performance in the Premier League may look like, again, using a 0-99 scoring scale.
Looking at that, we can see a few things:
For starters, his ball retention would be a lot lower than Silva’s, and a little below average for his position. I’m guessing that this is due to the higher dribbling tendencies and some passing numbers. Aouar’s forward and through passing percentages are pretty ordinary this season (his through ball percentage of 18% is terrible compared to Silva’s 46% in the 18/19 season).
You’d hope that with better teammates around him, and a little more experience at the very highest level, that ball retention would increase over time.
Even with average ball retention, he still projects to have elite attacking output for a central midfielder. So there’s a lot of positives to go with.
Aouar is (in my eyes) the most realistic Man City transfer on the list.
Houssem Aouar Cards
Houssem Aouar has a few cards out there and his rookie sticker is from the 17/18 season.
He also features in the recent Topps Champions League sets, including Sapphire - with some pretty awesome cards. They’re his first cards from a marquee set.
David Silva Replacement Two: Mason Mount
The other player we’re looking at that fits Silva’s overall playstyle (and one guy I think would be a great signing) is the unstoppable, undroppable, Mason Mount.
For this, we’re using Mount’s 2019/20 season as this season has been a bit of a mess organization-wise at Chelsea. They’re still trying to work out how everyone fits.
So, if we look at Mason Mount’s playing style from 2019, we can see that he had some similar style tendencies to Silva.
In particular, Mount was incredibly active in receiving the ball in the penalty box while being active in link-up passing.
Similar to Aouar, Mount dribbles a lot more than David Silva did in the 2018/19 season. But like I said before, Silva was himself a more active dribbler when he was younger so that’s no big deal.
And, if we look at Mason Mount’s actions around the pitch - we see another central midfielder that will drop back into his defensive half to contribute to the build-up, but again does most of his best work on the left-hand-side.
You can also see, that while Mount was receiving the ball in the box a lot - it was in different ways to Silva.
Silva was getting the ball in more shooting positions. Mount, on the other hand, is getting the ball at tight angles and is looking to pass to a teammate (yellow squares) or dribble and create something (purple squares).
Most of his shots (white squares) came from outside the box.
When we check Mount’s impact on the field last season, we can see how his numbers stack up impact-wise in the Premier League.
Mount has great ball retention - not as good as Silva, but in the same ballpark.
His defending is also underrated. The fact that he’s about middle of the road in regards to defensive quantity means that he’s defending a lot more than both Silva and Aouar - and still doing so at a high success rate.
Mount’s attacking output is easily the lowest on this list, but his attacking output has massively improved this year.
Hard to tell if that’s early season noise or not though. Also, Chelsea are a fucking shitshow this season and Lampard is not ready to coach a top club - so it’s hard to know what to do with those numbers.
One thing I do know though is that Mason Mount is passing the ball forward, and hitting longer passes, more than he usually has been.
This season, he is passing about four extra forward passes (around 9.5 compared to 13.5) per 90 minutes. In fact, he’s getting more passes in general.
Again, hard to tell where the truth actually lies, but you’d still expect a player to improve from the age of 20 to 21.
In short, regardless of if his attacking output has drastically increased or not, the moral of the story is that Mason Mount would be a great midfield replacement for David Silva at Manchester City. I just can’t see Chelsea letting him go anytime soon. Especially to City.
However, Chelsea do have a bit of a logjam of players at the moment and I think they’ll have to let someone go eventually - or just turn a great player into a piece off the bench.
Mason Mount Cards
Mason Mount has a bunch of cool cards and stickers out - his rookie season cards are from the 2019/20 Premier League season (he did play before then on load, but no cards or stickers to my knowledge).
Other Options
Here are some other options that came up with a similar play-style to David Silva’s 2018 season (with links to their cards on eBay). Note, there were a lot more players mentioned, but here were my favorite picks:
The reason I haven’t included these guys in the shortlist is that they’re either fresh on the scene (Wirtz), or haven recently moved clubs (Van De Beek - and I had to use his Ajax numbers, not his Man U numbers).
Phil Foden is another one that is included as a potential Silva replacement - but that isn’t his game. Personally, I love him further forward, even out wide.
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