Player Review: David Silva

David Silva

D.O.B: 8/1/1986

Height: 5ft7

Position: Attacking Midfielder

Joined Club: July 2010 from Valencia

Fee: £24m

Debut: 14 August 2010 against Tottenham







This is the signing whose ability to adapt was questioned the most by almost every sports journalist and pundit after he joined City in the summer of 2010. "He's too small" "He wont be strong enough" and "the Premier League will be too quick and too physical for him to adapt to" were the kind of things being levelled at Silva before he'd even kicked a ball in anger for City.

Mancini on the other hand (along with the vast majority of Blues) knew otherwise as he said to give him a couple of months to adjust to the new team and new league. Consecutive Player of the Month awards from October to December proved who was right.

Last season Silva was quite simply sensational, his passing and movement combined with his ability to work his way out of trouble was simply awesome. The only thing that let him down was his goals tally which could have been much higher. He notched up only 4 Premier League goals last season, preferring to pass the ball rather than take the shot on himself on a number of occasions.

He did get 13 assists in all competitions though, and given the standard of the team this season I wouldn't be surprised if that increased this season. In the first 4 games he's already bagged 2 goals and 2 assists.

He's been getting all the plaudits so far this week after a simply breath taking performance against Wigan. He was untouchable, and his part in the 3rd goal was like watching someone play fifa as he skipped past 3 players who had quickly surrounded him, leaving two on the floor behind him before slotting a defense splitting inch perfect pass through to Aguero.

If you looked at his highlights videos on youtube you'd be forgiven for thinking they were just like most other videos where they just pick the best few bits from a good season, I mean even Jo and Samaras looked good on youtube. But if you did think that, you'd be wrong, very wrong. He's like that almost every game he plays in, even when he doesn't have a good game he's still one of the best on the pitch. There's a reason his teammates call him Merlin. Take a look at the video further down the page to see what he's been like so far this season.

Mancini is spot on when he said that if Silva was playing for Barca he'd have already been considered one of the very best in the world. His ability says he is, but only now is he starting to get that recognition, partly down to City's increased global appeal. It's an unfortunate way it works, he was stunning last season but because City weren't playing in the Champions League etc he was overlooked by the majority of the world's sports media.

There have been questions asked between Blues recently as to who is/was the better player Silva or Kinkladze. Personally I don't think there is any competition. Kinkladze was a very good player in a poor team, Silva is an exceptional player and still stands out in a very good team.

I honestly have not witnessed a player quite like him in a City shirt in my lifetime. There have been players similar in style but none who I think can actually match his ability. I know this my go against the grain of a lot of older City fans but I think we shouldn't be comparing Silva's influence and ability to Kinkladze or Benarbia, we should be putting him right up there with Colin Bell.  Without a shadow of a doubt as long as David sticks around for a while we could be looking at the greatest ever player to play for City.