Silva has been top class for 9 straight years for us and an instrumental part of every trophy we've won it that time. Yaya was top notch for four seasons then retired 3 years before he left the club.I disagree.
Silva has been consistently 8 out of 10 throughout his City career. He’s right up there with the best we’ve had, certainly in the top half dozen all-time. But only on a handful of occasions has Silva grabbed hold of the game by the scruff of the neck and won it for us. He’s more the man who keeps things ticking, he runs the tempo of play. But he’s not the 10/10 player who dominates the opposition and scores the world class goal or the crucial winner.
Yaya bossed everybody at every team! Lampard Gerrard Carrick Fabregas Paulinho Sissoko Fletcher Mikel Fellaini Henderson Essien Mata Matic Lucas Allen Dembélé, no Prem midfielder between 2011 and 2014 got near him, they all got dominated and schooled by Yaya. He was untouchable!
Yaya was the biggest of big game goal scorers. World class goals. Goals from runs from our own half, bullets into the top corner, never shirked a penalty and never missed one.
His passing was also unrivalled. Nobody ever got the ball off him. I don’t recall anyone taking the ball off him in his prime years. He’s he calmest player I’ve ever seen with the ball at his feet as well as the strongest. He’d hold everyone off and just play the best simple pass that was on. There were numerous games where he had 110-120 completed passes.
I don’t think there’s any doubt that Yaya is the greatest I’ve seen in a City shirt.
He was, however, shit at heading the ball! Must have won about 3/500 aerial duels in his time with us :D
He’s the most important player in our modern history. For me, probably our greatest player of all time. His agent was a disgrace but he was doing the job well for his client. That’s life.
There are some haters but even our most criticised players of recent years (Dzeko, Kolarov and Navas) have gone on to have very good years with other teams. Over time, Dzeko and arguably Kolarov have become City heroes for the passion they have shown for our Club. People who criticised these guys week in week out used to sing that camp song, “ 1 Jimmy Milner, I want you to stay.” That ended well lol!
I don’t care what he did off the pitch. It didn’t affect my support or enjoyment of City or him, it didn’t ruin the 2014 title win in any way shape or form. What he did off the pitch was insignificant to me and many fans and seemingly the players too who all loved Yaya and still did after the comments about Pep in the way they celebrated with Yaya at Brighton this season.
You can disagree with someone’s views or actions and still disconnect those individual views or actions away from all their other individual views or actions and their personality as a whole.
You can even dislike everything about someone but still disconnect that from the footballer on the pitch.
Yaya is the best player I’ve ever seen play for City. He was a total colossus for us until his legs started to go. Nothing will diminish his legendary status with me and many fans. There may well be nicer, more down to Earth and less erratic personalities who’ve played for us; but none I’ve ever seen are as good with the ball at their feet than Yaya, not even de Bruyne (yet, still has more to show in the coming years).
For me once you step over that white line with the kit on, that’s it. That’s all that matters. If they’re a decent bloke or never do or say anything wrong outside that then that’s a bonus.
Garrincha is held in very high esteem in Brazil, but the bloke used to fuck goats! But even that doesn’t diminish his legendary status as a footballer.
Well said.Yaya Toure is the Greatest footballer ever to play for Manchester City.
Never once did he go hiding on the pitch.A central midfield genius.with ball playing skills I've never seen the like of.in all my life from a City player.And a true goalscorer.who barely missed a match ..and bossed every other teams midfield in the prem bar none.Yaya is the Greatest.
Is he fuck, Silva has been far better.
Yep. Without a doubt.for those of us able to put a players personality aside from his pure football ability.It was Yaya who time after time after time changed games for us.Not Silva.it was Yaya who carried the team in so many difficult away games ..when the going got tough..Yaya got going.Any fan attending games home and away when we were seeking to establish a foothold on the elite of the game in this country will tell you who our most important player wasGlad some can finally see where I was coming from with my support for Yaya, I am more concerned about the man and how well he helped the team. I don't give a fuck about whatever personal issue happened between Yaya and Pep when they were both in Spain!
As long as he gave 100% when he played here and NEVER slandered the club then that's fine with me.
As for who was / is the best between him or Silva, Silva is a great footballer and a better role model (little if any drama) for the younger generation of City players game changer, Yaya changed games every single time - from the FA CUP final against the rags to the 2 goals he scored in the game against Newcastle (the 2011/2012 season game were Richards put his body on the line to stop newcastle from getting an equalizer) the long range beauty in the cup final against Sunderland, he CHANGED soooo many games - goals from open play, free kicks, penalties, assists he did it all! The performance index are there for all to see! There shouldn't even be an arguement about this.
Silva is best when are on cruise control, Yaya on the other hand was a life line for the team, he saved the team on numerous occassions and may I add that Yaya played deeper than Silva. When you put all this into consideration you would see why the fans of other PL teams rate him higher than Silva.
We are talking about football here, its not a morality contest, if it were the likes of the real Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, George best and a few others would be discredited for being degenerate alchoholics and party animals, thankfully that isn't the case, so I don't see why the same shouldn't apply to Yaya, he might have had a shit personality but remains the best to put on a city shirt!
This is a good post. YaYa is one of the greatest ever, indeed one of our icons just going by the importance of many of his goals.We've all got our own favourites, so stop comparing Yaya to Merlin, we should all just be grateful that they are great players who happened to be ours.
The same goes for all the other stars who lit up the team, from Bell to DeBruyne and all in between (I don't remember anyone before Colin!).
Thanks Yaya!
Yep. Without a doubt.for those of us able to put a players personality aside from his pure football ability.It was Yaya who time after time after time changed games for us.Not Silva.it was Yaya who carried the team in so many difficult away games ..when the going got tough..Yaya got going.Any fan attending games home and away when we were seeking to establish a foothold on the elite of the game in this country will tell you who our most important player was
.Being a 'pretty ' midfielder with fantastic ball retention skills and a wonderful short passing range ,the occasional goal and a consu mate professional is what David Silva is...a simply wonderful player in his own right and a privilege to watch I have to say....
But it is Yaya who the team looked up to,it was Yaya who could operate a high level short passing game deep in central midfield before suddenly pinging a 60 yard ball to split the opposing team in two...and it was Yaya who dominated other teams midfield. ..every single one of them without any exception.And every team knew it.He was unplayable in his prime .Vincent Kompany knew it..and his judgement as a respected fellow player should be studied by a few on here who are blinded by the admirable skills of a fellow player who,quite frankly ,went hiding in so many tough games away from home offering no goal threat whatsoever and like others around him looked to Yaya to pull us through...Newcastle away 2012 is the clearest example of this...for those of us walking out of St James Park after that crucial game ..no one was talking about anybody else but the great Yaya Toure who almost single handedly dug us out of a tough fixture against a very lively home side roared on by vociferous support baying for our blood.
The range and number of goals scored by our midfield genius and the quite astonishing range of deadly accurate,passes both long and short together with the sheer physical presence of the man meant it was he who bossed games,dictated our play and ...most importantly. .was looked up to/relied upon by every single other team mate.
What a player!
The greatest player I've seen play for our great club..In past eras of course Billy Meredith Frank Swift Bert Trautmann Colin Bell and Peter Doherty are all spoken of with high praise...my opinion is limited to what I have witnessed as a match going supporter. (Fav player is still Paul Lake tho! )
Never slandered the club lolGlad some can finally see where I was coming from with my support for Yaya, I am more concerned about the man and how well he helped the team. I don't give a fuck about whatever personal issue happened between Yaya and Pep when they were both in Spain!
As long as he gave 100% when he played here and NEVER slandered the club then that's fine with me.
As for who was / is the best between him or Silva, Silva is a great footballer and a better role model (little if any drama) for the younger generation of City players game changer, Yaya changed games every single time - from the FA CUP final against the rags to the 2 goals he scored in the game against Newcastle (the 2011/2012 season game were Richards put his body on the line to stop newcastle from getting an equalizer) the long range beauty in the cup final against Sunderland, he CHANGED soooo many games - goals from open play, free kicks, penalties, assists he did it all! The performance index are there for all to see! There shouldn't even be an arguement about this.
Silva is best when are on cruise control, Yaya on the other hand was a life line for the team, he saved the team on numerous occassions and may I add that Yaya played deeper than Silva. When you put all this into consideration you would see why the fans of other PL teams rate him higher than Silva.
We are talking about football here, its not a morality contest, if it were the likes of the real Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, George best and a few others would be discredited for being degenerate alchoholics and party animals, thankfully that isn't the case, so I don't see why the same shouldn't apply to Yaya, he might have had a shit personality but remains the best to put on a city shirt!
I agree, we all have our favourites. Yaya isn’t even in my top three favourites of all-time. But for me he is the best player we’ve ever had.We've all got our own favourites, so stop comparing Yaya to Merlin, we should all just be grateful that they are great players who happened to be ours.
The same goes for all the other stars who lit up the team, from Bell to DeBruyne and all in between (I don't remember anyone before Colin!).
Thanks Yaya!