You've picked a few games there in isolation for Silva, there's an argument he at his most prolific centrally, tbh mate hes fucking good everywhere!
Not really - in the four years or so that he's been at the club he's probably played as a pure number 10 no more than a handful of times - that's with two different managers. He also previous to that rarely played as a pure number 10 for Valencia as far as I recall. Same for Spain. So i'd guess that his best position is playing from wide but drifting inside.
Again, playing him on the left or right flank increases his work load defensively , centrally he isn't as exposed as much to defensive responsibilities , I'd expect if Pep comes in you will see him in the number 10 role, in fact if KDB joins you will see him nail down that position permanently.
decent article
http://thinkfootball.co.uk/tactical-analysis-where-is-david-silvas-best-position/
Cheers I'd not seen that before. I agree about defensive responsibilities when he's played centrally, but then our problem has been a midfield which is too easily by passed. Putting Silva into the middle won't help that, it'll exacerbate it IMO. We need a 3 in the middle who are physically as well as technically strong enough. For me 4231 isn't going to get used as much as 433 to ensure we have more presence in the middle of the park.
Dare i say it but the player who puts a spanner in the works more than anybody defensively is Yaya, the blokes an enigma, certainly in a spell towards last season when we dropped the points that mattered there seemed to be a lack of willingness and squabbling between players to carry the water so to speak.As a side note if e want to prolong the life of the best player arguably to pull on a City shirt then a shift centrally permanently is a must.
I see your logic with our existing squad, but where does De Bruyne fit here? I think it's safe to make the assumption that we want him.
If he signs for £40m+, he'll play. As will Sterling. As will Silva, and Aguero. How does that fit with a 4-3-3? Sterling will play wide left. So who is in the middle 3?
De Bruyne? From what I've seen, his best work comes from out wide; he's direct, not a very technical and possession-based player like Nasri. I don't think we'd see the best of him in a central role.
Ditto Silva. We all know that he's at his best in a free role drifting between the lines, rather than sitting deeper in a middle 3.
I like your 4-3-3 with our existing squad, but if De Bruyne does come, I can't see past 4-2-3-1 (with Silva as a no. 10 and De Bruyne on the right) as being the system that gets the best out of those players.
http://eplindex.com/68058/vincent-kompany-season-off-past-prime.html
My apologies if this link has already been posted. But stats here show that kompanys performance last year was better than when we won the prem. Refers to a lack of cover centrally as the problem and mainly from Yaya.