Was Merlin as good as Xavi and Iniesta?

Whenever I see a David Silva thread, I get butterflies in my stomach like a teen with a crush. He is my favourite City player of all time.

The two other players mentioned. It’s like the Andy Murray debate if Federer and Nadal weren’t in his era. Bar Xavi and Iniesta, Silva would have been regarded as one of Spain’s best players of all time.

Not bad company to have played with, mind.
 
daztrueblue91 said:
All three were unbelievable players. I think if you replaced Xavi or Iniesta with Silva then the Barca team would have been brilliant but not as good as it was.

However, I don’t think Iniesta or Xavi would have had the same influence Silva did in the PL.

I think Rodri is above them all though.
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The Rodri debate would be with Busquets.

I wonder what level Rodri, Silva and KDB would have been had Pep had them 5 years earlier than he did.
 
I would say the three best midfielders of the last 15 years have been Iniesta, Modric and De Bruyne.

One thing I’ve always said about David Silva is that he was a 7-9 out of 10 most weeks, rarely had a 6/10 performance, but also didn’t really have the 10/10 in him that the very best had… while De Bruyne could have a 5/10 performance every now and again, he had shed loads of 10/10s.
 
As someone else said if Dave had been at Barcelona as a lad then I am sure that he would have been just as celebrated and successful as the Xavi and Iniesta.
 
roy.or.r said:
As good as David was, I would have to say no. Xavi and Iniesta are some of the greatest midfielders to ever play the game.
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But how many games did Xavi or Iniesta play on their own. They were fantastic together but would either of them, solo, be able to match what David Silva had. Play Xavi 'n Iniesta together and they were first picks and consequently David never got a look in, but I remember Silva saying he came to City as we were the only team that were taking an interest, and there were a dozen teams in the PL who regretted their lack of interest. Of the three of them I'd prefer to watch David Silva, and he certainly scored more stunning goals than either of them.
 
Tugay One Cup said:
Depends what you mean by that.

If you're talking about goalscoring, David was much better than Iniesta.
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That’s a fair comment. I was thinking specifically about the big goals Iniesta scored (especially the World Cup Final winner and that equalizer against Chelsea in the CL). He was better in those big moments

But yes, total volume David excelled
 
Purely on stats, David Silva holds up with 125 caps/35 goals.
Won in a Spanish squad - that included
Xavi (133/13),
Iniesta (131/13),
Fabregas (110/15)
Alonso (114/16)..

He started in the 2010 Euro final, was a late sub in the 2012 WC final and (I think) he was Spain's only non Madrid or Barca player to start the 2012 Euro final.

Had he played for Liverpool, United or even Chelsea, rather than a club the media largely hated (and in some cases, clearly still do) we'd have been told over and again that he was in the same class as Xavi and Inesta. Whether he was or not, I don't know.
I'm just glad he was ours.


PS.
It's a debate for another thread but that list of Spaniards kinda puts that terminally boring yet never-ending debate about England being somehow unable to acommodate Gerrard (124/25), Scholes (66/14) and Lampard (106/29) into perspective, by the way.
 
If Merlin had played for Barca or Madrid he'd have won the Balon D'or twice over and be lauded as one of the greatest ever.
 
All 3 are world class.
Let me put it this way if I had the choice of choosing one of them in their prime to play for us I’d choose David Silva all over again.
Also If I was also building a PL all time 11 he’d be the first name on the team sheet.
 
Love David.

I always thought his personality meant that he was happy to be a supporting player in his earlier days, when he was played wide. And because he was played wide, that's where he ended up for Spain more often than not, being a supporting member of the team rather than a key player.

Once Pep got here and put him as an 8 that all changed though. He made him central and everything went through him. From that point forwards he was every bit as good as Xavi and Iniesta.
 
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