Even if for a brief moment, it seemed moment as though all was lost for Manchester City when star Sergio Aguero went down with a knee injury in early December.
It was was expected to keep him out for at least six weeks and they were only expected to tread water in his absence. However, City responded with a dominant run that has included eight wins and two draws over their last 10 league games, and suddenly they are right there jockeying for position with Chelsea at the top of the table.
Aguero is undoubtedly a key player up front for Manchester City, but does the fact that they have thrived without him mean that perhaps there is a more valuable player to the team? David Silva’s name has come up time and again as someone who is crucial to the team’s success but is his creative ability more important than Aguero’s lethal finishing ability?
That got us thinking: Who’s the more important player for Man City? Here’s how the debate breaks down.
Evaluating Style
When it comes down to style, it’s hard to make a case for either player over the other. Both are excellent with the ball on their feet but for very different reasons. Silva is a player that likes to float around the field and find creative ways to manufacture opportunities for his teammates. He has excellent vision and passing ability, and sees a way through that others don’t. Time and again we have seen him serve up golden opportunities for his teammates to finish. Having a player that can create so much for the strikers is essential to the success of any major power. There are a number of teams that lack in the scoring department even though they have a great striker. The challenge is usually that there’s no one to get him the ball.
On the flip side, it’s also important to have a player that can finish off those chances which is what City has in Aguero. While he may not have the same vision or passing ability, Aguero is still excellent near the goal. He has been nearly impossible to stop with 19 goals in 21 games so far this season and 28 in his last 34. As long as he’s healthy, he’s about a goal-per-game player, which is simply incredible.
Durability
Given their differences in style the most obvious number to look at as a measure of success for both players is their appearance record with Manchester City. Both have been susceptible to injury during their time in England with Silva getting the slight edge in durability.
In terms of games played over the past two and a half seasons, he’s participated in 102 games across all competitions compared to the 94 appearances that Aguero has made. Perhaps most surprising of all is that Manchester City has not lost a single game that either one of them have missed over the past couple of seasons.
The fact that Manuel Pellegrini’s side is undefeated without Silva and Aguero isn’t testament to the logic that they are better off without their star players, but rather that their tremendous depth has helped make up for those losses. And often times when stars are out, the players left carrying the load know they have to focus a little more to make up for the loss.
Verdict
The differences in style and the fact that City has had success even without them in the lineup makes it difficult to objectively quantify which player is more important to Manchester City but what is clear is that with both of them available, this is a much more dangerous team both at home in England and when playing in the Champions League.
But we’ll give the edge to Aguero hear as it’s easy to be partial to a striker. With him, there are hard and fast numbers that we can go by. He’s as lethal a finisher as there is in today’s game. While Silva dazzles as a man who orchestrates the attacks, success is this game is eventually defined by goals scored and wins. That’s what Aguero brings and that’s why he gets the edge.
