Carlos Tevez: Will the 2011 EPL MVP Lead City to Victory over United?

Manchester City captain Carlos Tevez has led his team to great heights in the 2010-11 English Premier League season.

As of this writing, City is third in league on 49 points. The side has the third best home form in the EPL after United and Liverpool and the second best away form.

All told, City has the smallest gap between its home and away performances of the top three, making it arguably the most consistent of these teams.

While United sits top in the home form bracket, it is fifth in away form. Arsenal sits top of the away form bracket but sixth in home form.

This Saturday, City will face United at Old Trafford. Much has been made of City gaffer Roberto Mancini’s tactics against Arsenal on January 5 of this year. Though City held the Gunners to a 0-0 draw, the team was accused of playing negative, even cynical football. They parked the bus.

Rumor has it that Mancini will employ this tactic once more against United tomorrow. If he does, City will play to draw. But a draw with United won’t get City any closer to catching the Red Devils and seems poor strategy given that Arsenal face Wolves, one of the worst teams in the league.

Or perhaps City hopes to catch United on the counter attack. But with a back line featuring the talents of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, such a tactic smells more like blind faith than empirical strategy.

Though United has only lost one game so far this season, the team’s uneven form and poor display in a loss last week to bottom-of-table Wolverhampton shows that the side is nothing if not vulnerable to aggressive attack.

If City is to have any hope of winning the EPL this season, it needs to attack the Red Devils full force.

If City plays attacking football, its hopes hinge on the performance of one man, Argentine phenomenon Carlos Tevez. Though Vidic and Nasri have been the most-touted paragons of EPL virtue this season, Tevez is the league’s most valuable player.  

Statistics speak for themselves in the case of Tevez. With 18 goals scored; he is second to only Dimitar Berbatov, who sits on 19.

Tevez is also on five assists for the season; he has contributed directly to 23 goals. This puts him ahead of anyone in the league. Only two other players (Berbatov and Nani) have broken 20 this year in combined assists and goals.  

It’s telling that the player with the highest goal total and highest assist total play for the same team. Indeed, Nani and Berbatov’s United teammate Wayne Rooney is on 10 assists for the season.

Nani has eight goals to his name in addition to his 12 assists, and Mexican sensation Javier Hernandez has seven goals and one assist.

Between the four of them, Berbatov, Nani, Rooney and Hernandez have 38 goals and 25 assists. Tevez, on the other hand, is a one-man show.

City’s second striker, Balotelli, has five goals and no assists this season, integral midfield figure Yaya Toure has four goals and four assists, and David Silva has one goal and seven assists. These figure are respectable but not stellar like United’s.

While it would be easy to disparage Tevez for not playing a team game, this would be myopic. In his time at United, Tevez played his role perfectly, and that was not a role in the limelight. He was third fiddle to Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo.  

At City, Tevez has the advantage of playing on the attacking side of one of the best defensive sides in the EPL. The side’s back line has kept 12 clean sheets so far this season, more than any other club.

To his credit, Tevez has made the most of having a stellar defense. While the rest of his team’s attacking threat has been content with mediocre performances and relied on Hart, Toure and the rest of City’s defense to win the game, Tevez has trusted his back line to hold strong while he attacks opposition teams with gusto.

This ability to exploit his situation for maximum gain further increases Tevez’s capital as a player.

Without Carlos Tevez, City would be another mid-table team surrounded by the likes of Stoke, Newcastle and Bolton.

No other one player has made such a tremendous contribution to a top-of-the-table side in the 2010-11 season than Carlos Tevez.

City travels across town tomorrow to face United. Though it would be easy for Mancini to play a defensive game against his Manchester rivals, such a tactical ploy would prove nothing.

If City attacks to the best of its ability, if Tevez can find his way past Vidic and Hart can withstand the Berbatov barrage, City may well take three points from the game.

This may seem delusional after all of the statistics listed regarding United’s Herculean attacking force, but if Wolves can take down the mighty Red Devils, City stands a chance as well.

If City parks the bus, it may take a draw and a point from Old Trafford, but it will walk away an enemy of the sport.

If City plays an attacking game and lose, they will lose with dignity, knowing that they played the game of football the way it is meant to be played.

Certainly it’s more rewarding to lose and know you tried than to draw and know you didn’t, especially when Carlos Tevez is on your side.