David Silva's debut in English football was more than a decade ago. At the time, however, most of the attention was on Joe Hart – Mancini finally decided to replace Givn as the team's number one goalkeeper, and Hart also lived up to expectations and helped the team clean sheet Atttenham Hotspur with a series of wonderful saves at White Hart Lane.
In that game, City ended up taking a point away 0-0, and debutant David Silva seemed to be invisible on the pitch. The pace of the Premier League is much faster than in La Liga, and the newcomer Silva is difficult to adapt to and exert his influence on the field.
There was an impressive scene in the game: when Tom Heddlestone, who was opposite Silva, brought him down like a fly, Silva sat furiously on the grass in protest, spreading his arms to ask referee Andre Marina for a free kick.
The referee turned a blind eye and let the game continue.
David Silva came to the Premier League with high hopes.
He played well at euro 2008, and in the just past World Cup in South Africa, he was also a member of Spain's road to victory. But whether he can continue the magic in the British land is a completely different topic.
So, after the afternoon of the debut, the British media was clearly not impressed.
There was an exaggeration in the report: "The new immigrant from Spain spent a game reflecting on whether he wanted a Manchester City career that could barely touch the ball."
At least that afternoon, it was completely inconceivable that City's introduction of Silva would be a transfer to change the direction of Premier League football. Ten years later, Silva left with four Premier League medals (plus four League Cups and two FA Cups) – that's all he did in England.
At the time, however, Silva was a player who had not received enough recognition.
Because looking at his ball, like admiring a mural that fills an entire wall, requires "three steps back":
On television, Silva's talented teammates are brighter than he is; in the collection, he rarely has close-ups — not even a few times.
Only on the livestream can you feel his grip on the game; only on the top of the stadium stands can you fully feel his mastery of angles and space.
Admiring Silva requires not only stepping back in space, but also stretching the time into ten years.
City had many players who were more striking than Silva.
For the first two years of his Manchester City career, Carlos Tevez was the winner of the game;
In the middle of his Manchester City career, Yaya Toure was one of the most well-rounded midfielders in the entire league and even in European football;
In his final years at Manchester City, Kevin de Bruyne became the team's most reliant player in midfield with his physical condition and shooting skills that Silva did not have;
And, of course, there's Sergio Aguero, who arrived a year later than Silva and scored 254 goals in all competitions for the team.
The existence of these superstar teammates has become the main basis for many people to look down on Silva's role: yes, in every season of winning the league championship, Silva is not the best player in the team.
Even, Silva won the most popular player of the season award only once, three times less than Richard Dunn.
A lot of people like to look at the players in a compartmentalized way of each season, and they only look at the players in this way, which is a strange thing.
Yes, the best player in a championship season is certainly a good player, but being at the heart of a 10-year winning cycle is undoubtedly a better player.
Of course, there are still a lot of demanding fans who want to talk about those "moments that belong to David Silva".
Although Silva has only scored 77 goals for City, many of them are goals that only he can score – goals that come from the precision of his first touch, from the frequency and speed of his dribbling, and his magic of simplifying in the most chaotic of the penalty areas.
As an example, the away game against Blackpool in October 2010 was the kind of game that many people thought could not belong to Silva: the special style and home atmosphere of a small team from a low school was always frightening.
Still, Silva showed that he was different.
He received milner's short free-kick from the edge of the penalty area, then clipped Stephen Krennie with a fake shot, another unexpected fake shot that dunked David Vaughn's sliding shovel, and then a third shot arced the ball off Charlie Adam's outside and into the goal.
In October 2014, David Silva also scored an almost identical goal at Upton Park.
He let Mark Noble's tackle go straight out of the line, then went through the small gap between Stuart Downing and Alexander Song and slid in an arc over Winston Reed and straight into the net.
But Silva is worth much more in the game than scoring goals, and if you want to prove his worth with goals, you are the end of sherburn.
In seeking david Silva's great role on the pitch, it's time to take a step back – Silva has delivered 140 assists in 10 years at City, many of which are the best example of his perfect vision, timing and control.
At home to Bournemouth in August 2017, Silva sent a straight kick for Jesus, first accurately finding the space between the midfield combination Gosling and Suhrmann, and then giving Jesus a chance to find the space between the centre-back partner Acker and Mins, making Jesus' last shot look easy.
The same was true of Silva's assists against Vigan in September 2011, leaving McCarthy, Adrian López and Gary Caldwell helpless.
A month later at Old Trafford, Silva assisted Dzeko in the same way, leaving Smalling and Ferdinand with no shame on them and leaving De Gea helpless.
But even these assists can't describe Silva's greatness. We should take a step back and see Silva perform for the full 90 minutes.
For example, the four performances at Old Trafford were 6-1 in 2011, 3-0 in 2013-14, 2-1 in Guardiola's first season, and 2-0 in the first leg of the 2018-19 championship season.
And in some games, even if they lose, Silva will give some impressive performances. In April 2014, City trailed 2-0 at Anfield, and Silva helped regain control of the game in the second half before helping the team equalize 2-2 at one point, but was eliminated by Coutinho in the final moments.
Regarding Silva's performances for Manchester City, it can be reviewed throughout the day. He made 436 appearances for the team, making him in the top 10 of City's all-time appearances and the only player of the century in the top 18.
So if you take a step back, every game Silva has proven his worth. But even that's not enough. He was among the oldest players in the Premier League because he solved a fundamental problem in football.
Regardless of the level of the team, their focus in the game is to combine 11 individual players into a whole. In principle, this should be the goal of the manager's work, but Silva's genius is that he has almost done it on his own.
He's the lubricant and gel in the team, he knows where his teammates are, what they want to do, and then how to help them achieve their goals.
Around Silva, every player has become a better version of themselves.
Therefore, it makes no sense to disparage Silva with the legend of Yaya Toure and Aguero's personal heroism. Everything Silva does on the pitch is what is necessary for his teammates to make the most of themselves.
All the wonderful and great things that Manchester City has accomplished in the past decade are the credit of Silva. Without Silva, Mancini's team would lose creativity, Pellegrini's team would not be able to be a whole, and Guardiola's team would lose the master who knew his tactics best.
In every Manchester City game Silva has played, he has been the team's artistic director, the silent leader, silently turning the team into a whole. So, for a player, can they be asked to do more?
Next issue, No. 11, Leo Ferdinand.
This article is compiled from The Athletic's "Premier League 60" series by Jack Pitt-Brooke.
Following the "Don't Know the Ball Column" on major platforms, we will continue to share The Athletic's "Premier League 60 Stars" series of articles.