Honda v Silva: Who will provide the creative spark when Man City meet CSKA?

In recent years, the exciting displays of Keisuke Honda have attracted the Japanese star plaudits from European football fans. The CSKA Moscow man has become a crucial member of his team and has been highlighted as one of the men to watch in the upcoming Champions League game with Manchester City.

City’s David Silva is arguably the Manchester team’s biggest creative threat and it can be claimed that the outcome of this game will be heavily influenced by the performances of both teams’ talismanic players.

In terms of Performance Score, Honda betters Silva with a total of 339 in comparison to 232. However, the Japanese playmaker has played seven more matches than the man he will come up against on Wednesday evening, and when the average Performance Score per game is calculated it is Silva who is shown to be the better player; he has an average of 46.4 points, almost double Honda’s mean score of 28.25.

Silva’s Performance Score this season

This greater number of appearances also appears to give Honda the edge in creativity, as he has made 27 goalscoring opportunities for his team-mates; this overshadows the 20 chances which Silva has created so far this season. However, the statistics are distorted by the fact that Honda has made a much higher number of appearances than the Man City man, and in reality it is the Spaniard who is the bigger creative force.

Honda’s chances created this season

The statistics shows Silva to be the outright victor in the shooting category. He has an average shot accuracy of 67%, whilst just half of Honda’s shots find the target. In fact, despite playing seven less games than the Japan international Silva has scored two goals to his rival’s one, suggesting that Man City’s man poses a greater goalscoring threat than Honda does.

Overall, it is clear that Silva is the bigger creative force out of these two players. If both men play at the peak of their game, it will be the Spaniard who overshadows Honda, despite his obvious talents. Silva poses a greater threat to the CSKA defence than the Russian side’s playmaker does to Vincent Kompany et al and it could be the extra element of skill in the Manuel Pellegrini’s team which swings this game in their favour.