Yeah I'm not sure on where I stand on supporting roles in an XI, but we definitely use Bernardo that way at City (also Zinchenko, Rodri, and Jesus).
One thing is though I'd wager supporting acts are more necessary when certain other players play in a City team. We have one of the most philosophical managers in history and he REALLY believes in his philosophy. But I think also we have players that aren't necessarily prototypical Pep players to make that dream happen. In 16/17 I'd wager Pep quickly realised that the Premier League is always going to be the Premier League and there are certain things you need that you don't elsewhere. In Spain he could play Mascherano at CB to a good level, in England Fernandinho at CB turned out poorly, despite being a similarly talented footballer.
So we have a team with guys like Dias, De Bruyne, Mahrez, Aguero etc who aren't really Pep players. They've all been really talented and are excellent footballers, but playing any of them takes away from the philosophy. So to make up for it you need those boring grafters that will focus on high off the ball efforts and ball retention over more ambitious plays. It's probably not a coincidence that when De Bruyne doesn't play that Cancelo, Bernardo, and Gundogan all come to life.
As I said earlier I'm not sure this is the way to go but it I do understand the reasoning and in fairness it has had a large amount of success.
