Villa was a good purchase for us, and provided a good inside forward.. did the simple stuff very well and came up in important moments.
but as i said i just don't rate him a top player of the 00's.. also wasn't the leading man for spain's triumph in 2010
xavi, iniesta, busquets, iker all out performed him
for comparison
villa in 3 seasons with barca stat was-------119 apps 48 goals all competitions
in suarez's 15/16 season alone---------------53 apps 59 goals all competition
and villa had a prime xavi / iniesta / busquets / dani alves / messi supplying him
Top scorer for Spain all time is enough to consider him as one of the great players of the '00. It's asinine to think otherwise. Was an absolutely crucial part of the Spain team in both 2008 and 2010. He scored winning goals in 3 of the 7 games in the 2010 world cup. The whole team scored 8 times, he scored 5 of those. While Xavi and Iniesta were the best players of that team, they wouldn't have been able to get past some games without Villa's contribution against Chile, Paraguay and Portugal. They were toothless at times and Villa was the only one who could score in a brothel. Much like Barcelona was toothless sometimes without Messi so was Spain w/o David. To a lesser extent of course.
Comparing David Villa with Suarez is a bit irrelevant. For one, nobody argues Suarez isn't better than Villa. Secondly, Suarez is better than any striker in the '00 not named Henry. Thirdly, they joined Barcelona at different times in their careers and in Barcelona's evolution. Suarez 26 going on 27, right in the middle of his peak while Villa was 28 on 29 which is towards the end of a peak for a striker. Messi was the focus of the attack in Villa's time while Messi gave the striker role to Suarez while himself playing way deeper. Furthermore, Villa performed as good as we could've expected in his first year, doing his part perfectly for what is probably the best team of all time. Then he got injured in his second year and that was that. Even then he was pretty good in the knockout stages of the CL in 2012-2013 season until injuries and Tito's illness fucked us over real bad. But yeah, he was finished at that point.
Was also more than a striker. Check Cruyff's opinion of him. Hell, he even was top assisting dog of La Liga in 2007. As a goddamn striker in Valencia no less, so no superteam who scores 150 goals per season while also scoring up there with the best of them.
He was just doing great for a team without to many aspiration in Valencia which hasn't won much and he is regarded as a lesser player for it. Wouldn't have any doubt that he would be considered better if he had played for a team with greater ambitions from earlier in his career. Maybe that's his fault for not forcing a move and being loyal for a good part of his prime. The ability was there though.
Anyway, a lot of strikers would want to have Villa's 3 peak years 2008-2011. He was absolutely in the top 5 strikers in the world in that time. Hell, he was rated as the best striker in some those years by FIFA. Not saying that he was better than Etoo and the likes, just that he was up there competing with them while in a lesser team. Was also nominated for Ballon D'Or several times. Finished in top 10 twice iirc. Don't take my word for it though.