Unpopular Opinions (Association Football version)

[Magma]

I think Suarez led chance creation the last two season didnt he?

grand total since 2010-11 when he arrived. i dont think anyone else is actually close but i havent seen the latest stats for a while. pretty sure only hazard is anywhere near him.

 

[Unstable]

silva as a playmaker deserves to be mentioned up alongside iniesta and xavi.

No.

Silva isn't even better playmaker than Cesc. And Cesc somewhat failed in Barcelona

 

[Bojan KantKick]

Pls stop

 

[moomba]

Some people just shouldnt be allowed to have opinions.

 

[Unstable]

What?

Silva is not on Cesc’s level. Cesc is vastly superior in every aspect. When Cesc and Silva play together in Spain, Silva is pushed towards the wing while Cesc controls the mid since he is a superior playmaker.

Cesc is the first player in league history to have two seasons over 15 assists. Henry has the record for most assists in one season and Cesc can beat him this season.

Cesc is 14 assists away from becoming 2nd in the all-time assist table in the EPL. I mean, also in the UCL, Fabregas was the main reason Arsenal made the final in 2006. Whilst Silva has failed completely in UCL, when he isn’t offered the free space; his game loses its potency. Silva is not in Cesc's class level.

 

[Magma]

No.

Silva isn't even better playmaker than Cesc. And Cesc somewhat failed in Barcelona

your username is fitting

 

[chef]

Is it really that unrealistic to compare the two?

 

[Magma]

well once you start saying silva gets pushed out wide to accommodate fabregas, yes, yes it is.

that's about as real as saying cesc forces hazard to play out wide.

silva created 11 chances for us yesterday. eleven. yet got 0 assists. it shows how little assists can matter.

 

[elhadjihenry]

Silva gets pushed out wide for Spain because he is able to play there, Fabregas is a purely central player.

Not much between them imo.

Fabregas was the main reason Arsenal made the final in 2006.

A bloke by the name of Thierry Henry may disagree with you there.

 

[cyril4brownlow]

Ozil is still the best creative midfielder in the world.

 

[jod23]

grand total since 2010-11 when he arrived. i dont think anyone else is actually close but i havent seen the latest stats for a while. pretty sure only hazard is anywhere near him.

Just taking a look at last season.

Steven Gerrard led the league in assists with 13, Suarez was second with 12 and Silva was tied for 5th with 9.

Going deeper than that, Gerrard does, however, drop down to eighth in terms of shot assists, a metric that I prefer to assists to judge creativity given that it does not depend on a teammate to convert the chance. Although this is also imperfect as the location of the pass/shot is not taken into account, the players that would subjectively be seen as the league’s most creative players do tend to find themselves at the top of this objective metric whereas assists can be random. (taken from the article im getting these stats from)

Hazard and Nasri topped the list with 92 total shot assists, Suarez was third with 87 and Silva fourth with 86. Per 90 though, Silva tops the list with 3.56 shot assists per 90. Compared to Suarez at 2.64, Nasri at 3.31 and Hazard at 2.86.

But then if you take shot assist conversion % into account, Gerrard tops the league from Rooney. Suarez is third with 13.79% of his shot assists being converted compared to Silva's 10.47%. Does that suggest Suarez is creating more clear cut chances, the next stat would suggest so.

Big chance created stat. Suarez leads by a mile with 22 big chances created last season. The next best was Coutinho and Lambert tied on 13. Silva 11 or 0.46 per match. Suarez led the league with 0.67 per game.

Anyways take from that what you will.

 

[Buckleys Jocks]

I thought Nasri topped the league for chances created last season, he was right up there the year before that too.

 

[jod23]

I think Silva has been consistently the most creative player in the league the last 3 or 4 season, probably overtaken only by Suarez for a couple of years before his departure. Hazard probably next best, Nasri and Gerrard have been there or thereabouts over the past 3-4 years.

 

[moomba]

Silva does so much more than the final ball. He runs the show for us, he drags an entire defence to where he wants with his movement and passing. He creates spaces for others to exploit.

I keep going back to the 1-6 derby. There was only two goals that day he didnt create. He scored one of those two.

Of the four he made, only one assist.

 

[Buckleys Jocks]

I think Silva has been consistently the most creative player in the league the last 3 or 4 season, probably overtaken only by Suarez for a couple of years before his departure. Hazard probably next best, Nasri and Gerrard have been there or thereabouts over the past 3-4 years.

Baines is right up there too I'd have thought, although most of his are coming from set pieces but that's the same story with Gerrard too.

I just dug up an article about chance creation in 2012/13 as I was curious as to Mata's numbers pre United. They broke down the data into categories like assists, shot assists, clear cut chances, final ball leading to an assist etc and Mata was the only player in the league to finish top five in all categories.

 

[Magma]

last season silva also missed about 10 games. would also guarantee most of nasri's numbers come from a silva pass. he runs the entire game for us.

 

[Buckleys Jocks]

last season silva also missed about 10 games. would also guarantee most of nasri's numbers come from a silva pass. he runs the entire game for us.

The article jod cited does have Silva as number one for average chances created per 90.

 

[jod23]

last season silva also missed about 10 games. would also guarantee most of nasri's numbers come from a silva pass. he runs the entire game for us.

He played 27 league games. Suarez 33.

Suarez led most cats but that's to be expected as he is otherworldly.

 

[jod23]

The article jod cited does have Silva as number one for average chances created per 90.

Well shot assists. That's not a chance created.

He could pass sideways 5 yards at the top of the box and Dzeko decides to hit one over the bar. That's a shot assist. Not a chance creation. Different stat.

 

[jod23]

From an article I found from Feb 2013.

2) David Silva (Manchester City)
One of only two players to average over two key passes from open play per game (2.04), it is no surprise to see that David Silva ranks top among this ten in terms of assists (7). The fact that 12 of the chances he has created have been clear-cut opportunities for teammates this season suggests that he could easily have had more and, as mentioned previously, only Cazorla has completed more accurate through balls than his compatriot's 12.


1) Luis Suarez (Liverpool)
A huge distance ahead of the rest here - testament to the marvellous season he is having - Luis Suarez has averaged 2.65 key passes from open play per game. The fact that he only makes 28.2 accurate passes per match means that almost 10% (9.4) of his overall passes from open play create chances for teammates. His total of just four assists is incredibly unjust, with the Uruguayan having created 12 clear-cut chances, with poor finishing from teammates to blame for such a modest tally.

 

[Magma]

moreso i meant stuff like this

Squawka Football ‏@Squawka Jan 9

Happy 29th birthday to David Silva. Since 2011/12, no player has created more chances (322) in the Premier League.

i have no doubt that there are seasons where players created more chances. all i said was that over the time period since he joined no one has created more

 

[jod23]

moreso i meant stuff like this

Squawka Football ‏@Squawka Jan 9

Happy 29th birthday to David Silva. Since 2011/12, no player has created more chances (322) in the Premier League.

i have no doubt that there are seasons where players created more chances. all i said was that over the time period since he joined no one has created more

I think he is definitely the most creative player in the PL. Barring Suarez when he was there of course.

Hopefully Coutinho can become like Silva.

 

[apollo_creed]

cesc hasn't played since january, right?
a bit harsh to compare silva to someone who hasn't played for three months.

 

[Unstable]

well once you start saying silva gets pushed out wide to accommodate fabregas, yes, yes it is.

that's about as real as saying cesc forces hazard to play out wide.

silva created 11 chances for us yesterday. eleven. yet got 0 assists. it shows how little assists can matter.

Meaningless.

I bet I could pick a game from Cesc which has similar if not better stats. Assists has always depended on forwards scoring; this is nothing new here. City has a better forward line than Chelsea yet Cesc matched Silva’s best season figures this year.

You can argue Silva is better than Mata. But Cesc is on whole other level.

 

[Tulip]

The Mirror is running with DDG refusing to sign a new contract. 'Insider' quotes have it as the worst case scenario. Where there's smoke, there's fire - whilst it's hard to imagine De Gea flat out refusing a deal, I'd imagine he's Real bound sharpish.