Bernardo Silva - 2018/19 performances

[FantasyIreland]

:-)

When Tevez was in our side - I loved him! - not only because he was awesome on offense - but because he had a motor - always, always giving his all - involving himself on defense - yes, I admired that - even when it led him into being out of position/screwing up our offense. Not the right thing to do - but admirable in intent.
===
What transpired later when he refused to take the field... is unforgivable.

Tevez was awesome,a true inspiration in regards his workrate/talent balance.As for your second point,it was wrong indeed but i don't think a certain egomaniac left him much option.

 

[CityInWashingtonState]

Tevez was awesome,a true inspiration in regards his workrate/talent balance.As for your second point,it was wrong indeed but i don't think a certain egomaniac left him much option.

Touche!
Yet, I still have tremendous fondness for Mancini.

 

[jimmygrimblesboots]

Because while both are immensely talented,they both could do more,you're wearing blinkers if you cant see that.

Bernardo is equally as talented,yet he manages to find that bit extra every game.So,if he can.....?

Yeah , and that Messi never tracks back does he ? Horses for courses , midfield players will always require more workrate they have more defensive responsibilities , Sane & Sterling are there to stretch the opposition , press the opponents defence and create/score the goals , and they both do their fair share of tracking back helping out our full backs , blinkers ? total blindness in your case. Cheers , have a nice day , look after yourself etc etc

 

[mccity]

Yeah , and that Messi never tracks back does he ? Horses for courses , midfield players will always require more workrate they have more defensive responsibilities , Sane & Sterling are there to stretch the opposition , press the opponents defence and create/score the goals , and they both do their fair share of tracking back helping out our full backs , blinkers ? total blindness in your case. Cheers , have a nice day , look after yourself etc etc

There's this interesting quote by Guardiola on Cruyff out there that did the rounds a while ago,

He told you that you were playing badly because you were running too much. You had to send the ball where you wanted it to go and not to run after it. Lionel Messi is the player who runs the least and in that he was Cruyff's best pupil. He told you completely the opposite to what you had always learned.

As you say, horses for courses. Messi and Silva are two different players and one needs to run whilst the other maybe doesn't.
But weirdly, there is one City player who has very (current) Messi like movement, and that's De Bruyne. If you watch KDB, he tends to be more static than most but finds himself in loads of free space due to the everyone else moving and essentially creating pockets around him, for him. This 'lack' of movement is also why he makes for such a great pressing player; he's always got energy at hand to sprint. Like Messi.
Obviously I bring that up, because unlike with Messi, you can make the argument that Bernardo and KDB have similar roles. So clearly there is a way to play the position without over-exerting yourself. But also obviously, if Bernardo was running too much, Pep would've done something about it and not brought it up in interviews positively. So clearly Bernardo isn't doing a bad thing. In fact, running as a sign of effort is probably a bare minimum based on this quote from last season,

If they don’t do that they don’t play - they sit beside me on the bench. I can forgive everything - but if they don’t run, they don’t play.

So put the two quotes together and it's clear Pep wants his players to work hard, but also smart. If he wanted headless chickens who run we'd have been the team to play Henderson, Milner and Wijnaldum the other night.

I think we as people (especially in England) have a habit of overrating hard-workers. It's natural, because on a personal level you are going to respect and appreciate someone who makes the effort for you and shows some humility in the process. Particularly when there are so many players who come across as lazy and entitled. But I think Bernardo's performance has been a bit overrated for the same reason. He had a good game, he supported Fernandinho really well and helped create a couple chances, including the opener. But if you take the running out it's hard to say what he did fantastically. Especially compared to Fernandinho and the second half performance of Sterling. The converse of all this is we tend to underrate players who don't (appear) to work hard. This season Mendy, Mahrez and Sané (and Gundogan, but there's more legs to his criticism at least) are notable examples of players who's attitudes have been questioned and in my opinion have been unfairly criticised as a result. I'm sure you can dig out an old Dzeko or Kolarov thread to see this at it's height.
But as the above quote said, if you don't run, you don't play. The fact that Sané, Mahrez and Mendy have featured so much tells me they probably do run. And given how stubborn and principled Pep's been with certain youth players at times, I have no reason to doubt that he'd be similarly stubborn and principled with a below par effort player.


All in all, Bernardo is incredibly healthy and incredibly hard working and deserves all the commendation he gets for it. But to use it as a stick to beat two players with; particularly ones who arguably contributed as much or even more to the win, who have both already tremendously IMPROVED their workrate over the last year, and to top off it, clearly work just as hard, just in a different capacity is as you say unfair. Fernandinho didn't run as much as Bernardo either, is it fair to say he put in less effort?


My point really through all this was to add to your point and maybe illustrate that football can sometimes be complex in terms of what's needed, especially. The reason I've waded in and posted is less due to the actual debate at hand and more because the topic you were debating touches upon a nerve of mine, that in football we assume lots of running means a player's making more effort than others which makes them a better player than others. It's something they don't do anywhere near as much on the continent and it's a part of the reason the football out there is so much different and more sophisticated than it is over here. Effort is always good and should always be praised and demanded for, but it should never be conflated with ability.

 

[NorCalBlue]

Tevez was awesome,a true inspiration in regards his workrate/talent balance.As for your second point,it was wrong indeed but i don't think a certain egomaniac left him much option.

However much of an egomaniac Mancini was, I think there were probably one or two better options than buggering off to Argentina for several months against the club's wishes in the midst of a title campaign (our first credible one since 76-77). Fortunately, Bernardo appears to have all of the Tevez workrate with none of the Tevez personality defects.

 

[jimmygrimblesboots]

There's this interesting quote by Guardiola on Cruyff out there that did the rounds a while ago,


As you say, horses for courses. Messi and Silva are two different players and one needs to run whilst the other maybe doesn't.
But weirdly, there is one City player who has very (current) Messi like movement, and that's De Bruyne. If you watch KDB, he tends to be more static than most but finds himself in loads of free space due to the everyone else moving and essentially creating pockets around him, for him. This 'lack' of movement is also why he makes for such a great pressing player; he's always got energy at hand to sprint. Like Messi.
Obviously I bring that up, because unlike with Messi, you can make the argument that Bernardo and KDB have similar roles. So clearly there is a way to play the position without over-exerting yourself. But also obviously, if Bernardo was running too much, Pep would've done something about it and not brought it up in interviews positively. So clearly Bernardo isn't doing a bad thing. In fact, running as a sign of effort is probably a bare minimum based on this quote from last season,

So put the two quotes together and it's clear Pep wants his players to work hard, but also smart. If he wanted headless chickens who run we'd have been the team to play Henderson, Milner and Wijnaldum the other night.

I think we as people (especially in England) have a habit of overrating hard-workers. It's natural, because on a personal level you are going to respect and appreciate someone who makes the effort for you and shows some humility in the process. Particularly when there are so many players who come across as lazy and entitled. But I think Bernardo's performance has been a bit overrated for the same reason. He had a good game, he supported Fernandinho really well and helped create a couple chances, including the opener. But if you take the running out it's hard to say what he did fantastically. Especially compared to Fernandinho and the second half performance of Sterling. The converse of all this is we tend to underrate players who don't (appear) to work hard. This season Mendy, Mahrez and Sané (and Gundogan, but there's more legs to his criticism at least) are notable examples of players who's attitudes have been questioned and in my opinion have been unfairly criticised as a result. I'm sure you can dig out an old Dzeko or Kolarov thread to see this at it's height.
But as the above quote said, if you don't run, you don't play. The fact that Sané, Mahrez and Mendy have featured so much tells me they probably do run. And given how stubborn and principled Pep's been with certain youth players at times, I have no reason to doubt that he'd be similarly stubborn and principled with a below par effort player.


All in all, Bernardo is incredibly healthy and incredibly hard working and deserves all the commendation he gets for it. But to use it as a stick to beat two players with; particularly ones who arguably contributed as much or even more to the win, who have both already tremendously IMPROVED their workrate over the last year, and to top off it, clearly work just as hard, just in a different capacity is as you say unfair. Fernandinho didn't run as much as Bernardo either, is it fair to say he put in less effort?


My point really through all this was to add to your point and maybe illustrate that football can sometimes be complex in terms of what's needed, especially. The reason I've waded in and posted is less due to the actual debate at hand and more because the topic you were debating touches upon a nerve of mine, that in football we assume lots of running means a player's making more effort than others which makes them a better player than others. It's something they don't do anywhere near as much on the continent and it's a part of the reason the football out there is so much different and more sophisticated than it is over here. Effort is always good and should always be praised and demanded for, but it should never be conflated with ability.

That was hard work mate :) No seriously some excellent points , Dickov used to run about a lot , and i loved him for his work ethic , the end product wasnt that great though. The only player i can remember in a blue shirt who ran his socks off and was totally effective as a forward player was Tevez, he was a one off an absolute beast of a player though. Would rather have Sterling , Sane and to a certain extent Mahrez concentrating their efforts at the sharp end , they have the skill and class to hurt teams . It goes without saying that Pep would have none of these three players in the first eleven if they didnt contribute , i.e workrate , running , pressing and they all do plenty of that , but in the main it will be the midfield players who will be clocking up the miles , not the forwards or defenders. To say Sane & Sterling do not put the same effort in as Bernardo is ridiculous

 

[Aguero's Gray Hair]

In a world full of Pogbas, Be Bernardo.

 

[MiroNaukkarinen]

Against Liverpool he showed us that he's capable of being a box to box midfielder which I didn't know he would've been able to play as. He ran a season-record (so far) of 13.7 kilometers! He also is capable of playing in so many roles as well! A winger, an attacking midfielder and a box to box midfielder. We should be thankful to have David Silva's replacement already.

 

[soccergirl]

omgoodness, I adoreee this guy.

A commenter said he was like a possessed man, so true, at the end of the whistle he was still running like a possessed man, he EVERYWHERE in the damn field. Like PP said, he ran almost 14 kilometers alone in one match.
Him being 170cm and he tackle with Virgil, I didn't think he leave Virgil alone, every chance he get he duel.

I remembered this from Telegraph, and I giggles, and I still giggles. The commenter said [ Bernardo Silva is still running like some sort of Duracel bunny that has been struck by lightning. ]
haha, so so true. He duel with like every single Liverpool player, cover every space of grass, till the last second he was still duel, even when the whistle blow he was still so energetic.

This is the endurance and mentality we need. He was the 'man of the match' to me in the game against Liverpool.

 

[purplenose]

Bernado has slipped down the page ....cant be having that, he is fucking ace, words do no justice to him. What a player he will be when he is 26/27. We are so lucky to have him.

Amazingly there was a time when many on here thought he was shite.....