Yaya Toure, Silva, Nasri and Milner are our focus.
Basic Shots Assists
Shots Assists | Minutes Per | Per 90 | |
Silva | 86 | 23.9 | 3.75 |
Toure | 42 | 51.2 | 1.75 |
Nasri | 35 | 32.5 | 2.76 |
Milner | 28 | 42.6 | 2.1 |
Silva's number is out of this world. That number must be the highest in the Premier League, maybe Mata gets close but that's it.
Toure, despite being a more central, and at times, deeper player posts a good number per 90 but it is naturally going to lag behind forwards/wide players who play in more advanced roles.
Shot Assists Home/Away
Home
Shots Assists | Minutes Per | Per 90 | |
Silva | 41 | 26.7 | 3.36 |
Nasri | 23 | 24.7 | 3.63 |
Toure | 19 | 56.4 | 1.59 |
Milner | 21 | 22.6 | 3.97 |
Silva is king, posting excellent numbers across the board.
Toure is left in the dust by Milner and Nasri, but it must be mentioned both players have played only half as much at home as Toure has. Toure's number is good for a midfielder, but it is badly trailing the more forwardly positioned players.
Nasri and Milner both pots fantastic numbers despite limited minutes, those numbers go some way to highlight City's dominance at home.
Away
Shots Assists | Minutes Per | Per 90 | |
Silva | 45 | 21.4 | 4.2 |
Toure | 23 | 46.9 | 1.91 |
Nasri | 12 | 47.5 | 1.89 |
Milner | 7 | 102.7 | 0.87 |
Silva continues his dominance, I can't really say enough about his numbers. They are consistent both home and away, and Silva is creating over 4 shot assists per 90 minutes.
Toure improves on his already impressive home numbers from central midfield. Just short of 2 chances per game is good number.
Milner and, to a lesser extent, Nasri both drop off the face of the earth away from home, but why? Tactics, opposition tactics. It's difficult to say.
Man City have taken 250 shots in 14 home game (17.8) and 259 in 15 away games (17.26). So a couple of things here: Shots haven't dropped off but Milner/Nasri have assisted 25 less shots. Either City players are creating more shots by themselves (unassisted) or the drop off in Milner/Nasri is being picked up by other players.
Toure and Silva account for 8 more set-up's and the strikers are creating 13 more shot assists away from home, Silva/Toure/Dzeko/Tevez are picking up the slack where Milner/Nasri should be creating.
Milner and Nasri's (relative) failure to create shot assists is a problem. Why are they creating less? Why is the burden to create falling to players with lesser ability? Why are the strikers, who improved away, and Toure and Silva, who maintained their numbers, being relied upon to create away from home?
Or, or.....maybe it's a tactical thing, although I'm almost willing to discount it. For why would a manager want a less numerous group of players to create the majority of chances?
Could a manager really want total football at home, where all players create, and then away from home pin the creative burden on a select group of 4 players (1 mid, 2 strikers,1 forward/wide man) ?
In short Tevez, Dzeko, Toure and especially Silva are doing the heavy lifting away from home. All the while Nasri and Milner have failed to maintain their home form. Has this drop off in form from two quality wide players contributed to City's poor away goals record and thus poor away form?
Influence on team
This chart features all games and not each players personal number per minute or per 90.
Silva is consistently excellent and has raised his levels of shot assists in the last 3 games.
Milner is creeping up with increased playing time. Nasri is declining due to a lack f playing time. Yaya Toure's number is declining too due to AFCON and a few barren games recently.
Conclusion
Silva is a beast, probably the PL's biggest beast. Toure posts a good number for a central midfielder who occasionally pushes forward.
Nasri and Milner, both excellent at home, are posting poor numbers away from home.
Silva needs some help in the wide or attacking midfielder areas for Milner and Nasri aren't contributing enough away from home.