Replacing Silva with Foden will be a massive decision for Pep
Liverpool were playing Manchester City in the semi-final of the 2012 League Cup and our manager, Kenny Dalglish, offered some words of encouragement in the dressing room. “They have not got 11 David Silvas,” Kenny told us.
I can think of no bigger compliment to the City magician – one of the greatest Premier League imports – than a legendary figure such as Kenny singling him out for such praise.
Silva is City’s finest ever player, in my view. There is some competition from his former and current team-mates – and I am sure City fans of an older generation will tell me I am overlooking Colin Bell – but generally I would say Silva has the edge for the way he helped to transform the club and how we perceive midfielders.
Occasionally players make an impact who change the game. Before Silva, most, if not all, of the managers working in England believed you had to be physically imposing and a box-to-box, tackling midfielder to dominate from the centre of the field.
When Silva moved to City, he ticked none of the boxes of an orthodox Premier League midfielder. So many coaches hesitated to pursue him because of their preconceptions.
Can you imagine the scout reports?
“He is 5ft 6in. He is not particularly fast. He does not score that many. I have never seen him make a header. He cannot tackle, and will not be able to track back quickly.”
Despite all that, there is an old cliche used about the most technically gifted players which applies to Silva more than any player in the Premier League era. It is a quality which overrides all others. “You could not get the ball off him in a phone box.”
Silva looked like a ballet dancer elegantly tiptoeing around sluggish heavyweights.
Playing against him was an education, admiring the way he received a pass, his first touch so perfect he was already thinking about the next move before he controlled the ball. This is what separates genius from the rest, and why there are some players who always seem to have a second more than those around. They play and see the game quicker than others. Dalglish probably saw a bit of himself in Silva.
I am aware all of that reads in the past tense – like a tribute to a player coming to the end of his career. Silva has a bit more to go, and if City progress through the Champions League rounds he will be fundamental to that success.
But the reality is he has already confirmed this will be his final season at the Etihad, and his contribution is gradually dwindling. He no longer controls games the way he once did.
This partially explains why City have, so far, not been able to match the extraordinary levels of the past two years under Pep Guardiola. There is a lot of focus on their defence – rightly so, because they need another centre-back – but their midfield is not what it was. They are easier to play against.
This is what Guardiola must fix, not only over the next few months, but before the start of next season if he is to get to work on building the next great City team.
I believe the manager is facing a dilemma as short-term and long-term ambitions overlap. Naturally, he will not compromise this season’s ambitions, hoping Liverpool drop back in the title race and trying to win that elusive Champions League trophy for City. It is not in Guardiola’s nature to give up on the biggest prizes.
At the same time, his comments last week revealed how concerned he was that he no longer had the squad to do it. “We have to improve, accept it and move forward,” he said. “The level we face – Liverpool, Manchester United, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus – the reality is maybe we are not now able to compete with them.” These remarks were received with some astonishment given how much City have invested.
What they tell us is that Pep is recognising the life cycle of a fantastic team is coming to an end. The pertinent question for him is when does he act? Does he look at Silva and think it better to squeeze every last perfectlyweighted pass from him until May – believing it will click in the second half of the season when injured players return?
Or is now the time he must turn to Phil Foden and trust him more regularly? Give him the experiences the second half of the season will bring.
We have heard about Foden representing City’s future, being Silva’s natural successor, for 18 months now. We have seen only snippets of what he can do so far, such as in the Champions League dead rubber in midweek. We are yet to see if he can make that massive impact to carry City forward once Silva has gone.
Guardiola has often spoken about how much he believes in Foden, this week hailing him as part of “an incredible generation of English players”. That belief is yet to be demonstrated by starting Foden in the biggest games. This choice, Silva or Foden, will tell us exactly where Guardiola’s head is. He is the most successful manager of his generation. At Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City, his genius was shown in transforming how outstanding squads played and thought about the game.
Unlike the most successful manager of the previous generation, Sir Alex Ferguson, Guardiola has not overseen a transitional period, easing out world-class players and winding down one magnificent side to create another.
We will know over the next 18 months if that is a challenge he has the appetite to undertake in Manchester, making the next five or six signings City need to maintain the standards they have set and lead a fresh charge for the next four or five years. With Silva’s exit, only Sergio Aguero and Fernandinho – both in their thirties – will remain of the core of the City team who changed the balance of power in England.
Whether City spend big again or back the symbol of their youth policy, they will reflect on the 10 years’ service of their current captain and upon the fact they did not need 11 David Silvas. One was enough. And he is irreplaceable.
Guardiola’s dilemma as his team fade is whether to squeeze last ounce out of Spanish genius or turn to his youth prodigy now
‘He has a quality which overrides all others – you could not get the ball off him in a phone box’