Why David Silva Is More Valuable to Manchester City Than Sergio Aguero

David Silva is more valuable to Manchester City than Sergio Aguero, but that is rather like saying £20 million is more valuable than £19 million. Losing either player for a significant period of time would devastate City and throw their now-annual chase after four trophies into the weeds.

Still, for many football followers, the idea that playmaker Silva is more important to City than goalscorer Aguero rings hollow. That does not make the statement any less true.

Silva is more valuable than Aguero at City because given City's present roster construction, Silva is irreplaceable but Aguero isn't.

City's team sheet for their recent loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League group stage tacitly announced Silva's irreplaceable quality.

Aguero began the match on the bench. The possible reasons for Aguero's omission from the XI are numerous.

City boss Manuel Pellegrini may want Aguero rested for City's Premier League tussle with Chelsea this weekend. Aguero has not always been the healthiest player, and City need to coax Aguero through the season from a workload perspective. Aguero has thrived recently in late cameos, scoring against Newcastle United and against Liverpool after being brought on late. These are all facts.

Here is another one: Even after letting Alvaro Negredo leave Manchester, City still have three capable strikers. Edin Dzeko started against Bayern and worked a gritty, honest shift. Stevan Jovetic had that brace against Liverpool and, when healthy, has shown himself to be an offensive catalyst.

So if anything untoward would happen to Aguero, City would suffer, but City could go on.

The same cannot be said in the event that Silva goes down. No one on City's roster can play Silva's quarterbacking role effectively.

Matthias Schrader/Associated Press

Anyone who has watched City in the past few seasons during Silva's occasional absences can attest to how turgid City's offense becomes when they try to run it through some combination of Samir Nasri, Yaya Toure and the like.

City get to the final third well enough without Silva. Thereafter, though, they rarely find that last pass that creates a goal without the diminutive Spaniard.

And it is the ultimate in small-sample-size analysis, of course, but against Bayern it was Silva who seized upon the few openings the German side offered and had two great scoring chances of his own. On a day where City ceded more than 60 percent of possession, such chances were very rare.

Silva was on the business end of a Navas cross in the 62nd minute (and maybe should have buried it). Silva also was clattered into by Bayern defender Mehdi Benatia in the penalty area in the 83rd minute, though no spot-kick was given.

Soon enough Aguero is apt to post a brace here and a hat trick there in Premier League play, and the reflexive reaction will be to overvalue Aguero's goals over Silva's less glamorous efforts because the goals are why the supporters come to the match.

But the players come to the match to win, and City can win many matches with a healthy Silva whether Aguero plays or not.

Without Silva, though, City's success ceiling begins to drop much closer to their floor.