Fantastic post, mate. Welcome to Bluemoon, I hope you stick around and post some more.
Have you managed to see much of Bernado Silva? It would be great to hear your analysis of him.
Simply put, Bernardo is the most talented Portguese player of this generation. Most here agree that he's more talented than Ronaldo (work ethics and athleticism + a good coach in Ferguson got Cristiano where he is more so than raw talent). Will he turn out too be as good or achieve as much? I don't know, mainly because of his position on the field, which is relatively low-profile and not that of a serial goal scorer. Nor is Bernardo that kind of player, mind. He's an Iniesta (whom I think's a better player than Ronaldo anyway, so yeah, it's confusing).
I first got to watch him at our academy in Seixal, he was always the stand out player. Like it's been quoted in some story posted here, because he's so small, he developed some incredible dribbling and ball possession skills to even it out against the bulkier guys. I've never seen a player like him come from Portuguese youth ranks - he's a
Cantera kind of guy, one you'd expect to come from, say, Barça's
La Masia. He's a Guardiola type of player if I've seen one. The comparisons with David Silva are reasonable and logical, think he can learn a lot from the spaniard. I think the old technique vs strength adagio applies - his skill will compensante his small size in the Prem. A bit like David, Kevin and Coutinho are any defence's nightmare.
One thing Bernardo will be helpful at is opening spaces. Not just because of his incisive and clinical through balls, but because whenever he runs upfield with the ball on his feet, he seems to attrack defenders like a magnet, all trying to dispossess him (and failing) - suddenly, they've been compromised and all caught out of position. I can already see this happening, him galloping through the middle with the ball attached to him, attracting CBs and FBs alike while guys like Sane make a run for it on the sides, which have been left completely open. I think it's this traait that has motivated the comparisons to Messi.
That said, his stats are misleading. He might have had 10 or so assists, but Bernardo assists the assists, and that is not taken into account. He's a creative midfielder more than an offencive one, to be fair. Which makes the amount of goals scored even more impressive. A trademark Bernardo play goes something like this:
- Receives the ball from CB or defencive midfielder.
- Progresses upfield with the ball attached to his left foot while attracting every defender.
- Passes to one of the wings or full backs, if they're on the attack.
- Winger/Full Back assists.
He can do much more, of course, including a more possession based sort football instead of all-out counter attacking like they did at Monaco. One thing which is noticeable from his videos is how he times everything perfectly, and knows how and when to pass the ball back if there are no viable options up front. He just won't give pocession away, and that's something that pleases Pep. Pep would rather see the ball go all the way back to the goalkeeper than losing because of some silly, badly measured pass.
He's also good defensively, he backtracks a lot and from time to time even gets the ball back. The fact that he backtracks probably has more to do with the way he plays, though, since he likes to progress from his own mid field. Oh, and I don't think he'll always last the full 90 minutes. You should take that into account and get used quickly. Perhaps with time he'll gain more stamina, but asking 90' Premier League minutes out of him is still too much.
Hope I was able to help. Perhaps a mod would like to move this to the Bernardo thread? Don't want to be off-topic.
Awesome mate, thanks for the info on Ederson, he sounds fantastic. I don't know if you've seen much of keepers in England, but if so, do you think he can be as good as Courtois or De Gea?
Is he good with one on ones, and penalty saves?
Going to class now, I'll answer later. :)
