Isn’t Yaya the only central midfielder that played as part of a 2 to score 20 league goals in a season? He most definitely scored enough when he was at his pomp at City.
Isn’t Yaya the only central midfielder that played as part of a 2 to score 20 league goals in a season? He most definitely scored enough when he was at his pomp at City.
He had a cracking season in 2013/14 and looked everything that a box-to-box midfielder should be.
Unfortunately that was an outlier.
In three seasons with Beveren he scored 3 in 70 games
In two seasons with Donetsk he scored 5 in 39 games
One season with Olympiacos 3 in 32 games
One season with Monaco 5 in 27
Three seasons with Barcelona 6 in 117
Not exactly a driving force in front of goal in relatively weak leagues. In Barcelona he was surrounded with quality but was still goal shy.
Perhaps he was asked to play deeper...if so that would explain the lack of goals. But then he wouldn't be regarded as box-to-box and is out of the equation.
When he arrived at City his ratio increased and his first three seasons he averaged 10 which is a lot better.
Then he had his outlier in 2013/14 and in 2014/15 before going back to lower numbers.
If you are a city fan then you will know more than me about his career with you...but in his first 10 seasons as a pro footballer his goalscoring record was too poor for me to regard him as a world class box-to-box midfielder.
As a DM perhaps...he was brilliant.