I did, we won pretty much every game with and without him. I also paid attention to the incredible performances of Bernardo Silva the first few games of this season and the fact he’ll be competing against our best player of last season: Kevin De Bruyne. Love Dave but he’s gonna have to really fight for his place this year.
I rate Bernado Silva and am so so delight that he will be the long term successor to Dave.
But “incredible performances in the first few games”? We’ve only played 2! One of them was a friendly, in which he was very good. On Sunday he was actually pretty anonymous for large periods of the game, but he scored a fantastic goal which possibly explains the exaggeration.
We play better as a team with David Silva in than without. He knits the team together, makes us more fluid, always offers an outlet, runs the game.
DeBruyne is a sensational player, and he’s all the better for having Dave alongside him. While Dave runs the game, it frees DeBruyne up to take risks with his heat seaking passes.
When Dave is not there, DeBruyne has to take on more of a playmaking role and be more cautious with his passing, and it takes away from his strengths. It’s no coincidence that KDB had his dip in form around the time Dave was away last season.
I’ve seen David Silva written off before. In fact it’s happened every season for the last 5 years. Then the games start, he plays, completely runs the game and then he’s picked for every week.
He might not start 60 games this season, but when fit I’d fancy him to start the majority of PL games and all of the relevant CL games. Reports of his demise have been greatly exaggerated.