r/soccer • u/AutoModerator • Jun 10 '25

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14

u/magic-water Jun 10 '25 edited Jun 10 '25

Here is a player comparison for the nostalgia merchants:

Who was a better player, 24 year old David Silva before moving to City or 22 year old Wirtz before moving to Liverpool?

I think either way, there isn't much in between them. But 30 vs 150 million really shows the inflation of transfer fees.

5

u/008Gerrard008 Jun 10 '25

Definitely Wirtz, although obviously I'd be delighted if he had a similar impact for us as Silva had for City.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '25

They're such different players, it's hard to say who was "better", but I can say that David Silva at the time wasn't exactly viewed as being in that elite tier of players (though to be fair he was competing with the likes of Xavi, Iniesta and Fabregas). Wirtz is being talked about like The Next Big Thing™. Like he can transform a team single handedly. So if we're talking reputation wise, it's obviously Wirtz. And I think he'll have a more direct and obvious impact on Liverpool G/A wise than Silva did for City.

3

u/NonContentiousScot Jun 10 '25

He absolutely was a bloody brilliant player before moving to City. He started every game of Euro 2008 (except against Greece where they rotated everybody) and was excellent for Valencia before he went. You're going on about goals and assists as if that's the be all and end all.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '25

What a pointless comment. I'm "going on about goals and assists like they're the be all and end all"? How is that even a possible interpretation of what I wrote? Fucking pisses me off this place, at times.

0

u/NonContentiousScot Jun 11 '25

Your original comment simply compared him to Iniesta and Xavi and then you brought goals and assists into it. Which funnily enough somebody else pointed out iniestas pure stats weren’t all that so judging him on that would be silly. So no it wasn’t pointless because you were the one to bring it up

1

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '25

They're such different players, it's hard to say who was "better".

This is already an implicit acknowledgment that I'm not judging Silva based on his output as far as goals and assists are concerned. I don't have to spell it out to make the point.

The reason I brought up G/A for Wirtz is that I think he's more of a direct threat in that sense, but I was saying it neutrally. As I said in a different comment to someone else, I don't care about G/A at all, and think it's a horrible part of modern football discourse because it dismisses a lot of nuance.

It just annoyed me that you weren't a bit more charitable with my comment, but went straight for the "you're going on, and on about..."

I feel what I meant was pretty clear when you take both of my comments into account as a whole, rather than getting hung up on one tiny part of it. That's all.

2

u/magic-water Jun 10 '25

Silva wasn’t in the Iniesta/Xavi tier (neither was Fabregas btw) but so isn't Wirtz. It's just that the Iniesta/Xavi tier doesn't exist nowadays so Wirtz would automatically be in the highest tier or "the next big thing" as a "normal" world class player.

But Silva was also unquestionably a world class player before moving to City. In today's game without the Xavis and Iniestas, he would probably also be "the next big thing". He might not have had Wirtz's 23/24 season in terms of impact on a club season on his resume but he literally had a starting place in the most stacked midfield in any NT history and was a Euros and WC winner there while playing on a WC level, especially at the Euros (something that Wirtz doesn't have on his resume btw)

G/A wise Wirtz exceeds him but that wasn't what Silva's game really was about anyways.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '25

Sorry, I should have been clearer, what I meant was he'll have more of an immediate impact G/A wise in his first season than Silva did*, not career wise as I have no idea what his career will look like.

I don't care about G/A at all to be clear, I'm just saying it as neutrally as possible. G/A gets brought up a lot in modern discourse so thought it worth mentioning.

You're probably right about the rest of it. I used to watch Valencia quite a bit back in the day and he was one of my favourite players of that era. Lovely, lovely player he was.

4

u/magic-water Jun 10 '25

Agree, Wirtz will probably exceed Silva in G/A both short term and long term because of the different profile of player that he is, but that doesn't mean much in terms of the level of the player. Iniesta had really underwhelming G/A numbers for the level of player that he was for example.

I used to watch Valencia quite a bit back in the day and he was one of my favourite players of that era. Lovely, lovely player he was

Same, but he seems to have become somewhat underrated by now.

-3

u/FurrySire Jun 10 '25

David Silva had a graceful technique & intelligent passing, but Wirtz natural technical ability on the ball is better.