Our best ever player

Weirdly, most Treble winners seem a bit underrated. They did much better in the CL than their predecessors, not just winning it but going 26 games unbeaten, an all-time record in European club competitions.

As good as Yaya, David Silva and Aguero were, they weren't successful in the CL with City, both before Pep and with Pep. It's the likes of Rodri, Bernardo, Haaland, Gundogan, Foden, Dias... who made City the best in the world.

My controversial take: Bernardo is very underrated in comparison to David Silva or Yaya. Bernardo has scored more goals against the big teams in England than David, especially away from home, and has been much better in the CL, with many MOTM performances against the likes of Real and Bayern. Plus, he runs and presses more, being thus more helpful in defence. Fabulous player. There isn't a world where Pep picks Yaya over Bernardo.
 
Robanompivenov said:
David Silva holds a special place in my heart and I didn't think my mind would ever be changed as him being number 1. But Kevin has reached entirely different levels to anyone else.

He's in the conversation vs Henry as the best Premier League player of all time in my opinion.
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Not just by City fans either. Across many fanbases it’s Henry or De Bruyne.
 
alexmcity said:
Weirdly, most Treble winners seem a bit underrated. They did much better in the CL than their predecessors, not just winning it but going 26 games unbeaten, an all-time record in European club competitions.

As good as Yaya, David Silva and Aguero were, they weren't successful in the CL with City, both before Pep and with Pep. It's the likes of Rodri, Bernardo, Haaland, Gundogan, Foden, Dias... who made City the best in the world.

My controversial take: Bernardo is very underrated in comparison to David Silva or Yaya. Bernardo has scored more goals against the big teams in England than David, especially away from home, and has been much better in the CL, with many MOTM performances against the likes of Real and Bayern. Plus, he runs and presses more, being thus more helpful in defence. Fabulous player. There isn't a world where Pep picks Yaya over Bernardo.
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I don't think it's controversial to say Bernardo should be held in higher regard.

We hadn't had world class players for a long time before the likes of Yaya, Sergio and David rocked up. We were blessed with seeing players who could do things we hadn't witnessed for a couple of generations - and do it consistently.

I love David, he's probably my favourite. But when it comes to greatest I do have a question mark over him. I don't think he scored enough, I think it was a weakness to his game and meant he often looked to pass over shooting. I think we've had a lot of players who didn't have a weakness to their game like that. Bernardo has won us lots of games. He is a wonderful player to watch, with the ability to keep the ball as if it's glued to his feet. But also the tenacity and fight to get stuck in to the opposition.

As for Yaya, ignoring off the field things I think he's a player who Pep would be considering with De Bruyne rather than Bernardo. But putting that to one side, you're talking about a player who won us the FA Cup semi against the rags and then the final - our first trophy in 35 years. He delivered so many huge moments for us and could win a game on his own quite frequently. He won us that tricky game at St James' Park in 2012 where a lot of the team looked flat. I said before, had he stayed on the pitch we'd have beaten QPR 3-0 and all would have been comfortable. So we can also thank him for going off injured and getting the Aguero moment that will continue to be a highlight forever more.
 
I know why the conversation is there with KDB, but I can’t see passed Silva for our best ever player. I absolutely love watching him play football. Simply sublime and I’m gutted he never got the final match goodbye he deserved from the fans, and from him to us. That would have been some moment for all concerned.
 
supercity88 said:
I don't think it's controversial to say Bernardo should be held in higher regard.

We hadn't had world class players for a long time before the likes of Yaya, Sergio and David rocked up. We were blessed with seeing players who could do things we hadn't witnessed for a couple of generations - and do it consistently.

I love David, he's probably my favourite. But when it comes to greatest I do have a question mark over him. I don't think he scored enough, I think it was a weakness to his game and meant he often looked to pass over shooting. I think we've had a lot of players who didn't have a weakness to their game like that. Bernardo has won us lots of games. He is a wonderful player to watch, with the ability to keep the ball as if it's glued to his feet. But also the tenacity and fight to get stuck in to the opposition.

As for Yaya, ignoring off the field things I think he's a player who Pep would be considering with De Bruyne rather than Bernardo. But putting that to one side, you're talking about a player who won us the FA Cup semi against the rags and then the final - our first trophy in 35 years. He delivered so many huge moments for us and could win a game on his own quite frequently. He won us that tricky game at St James' Park in 2012 where a lot of the team looked flat. I said before, had he stayed on the pitch we'd have beaten QPR 3-0 and all would have been comfortable. So we can also thank him for going off injured and getting the Aguero moment that will continue to be a highlight forever more.
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I don't doubt David and Yaya, I question the relative (worse) standing of Bernardo.

One can argue that Dickov made more decisive contributions than Bernardo, but we discuss here the overall quality.

Bernardo vs Liverpool in January 2019, and Bernardo vs Bayern and Real in 2023 were better performances against better teams than David's and Yaya's best performances which came against lesser teams (United were a dying giant back then, nowhere near as good as Liverpool and Real). I think people conflate the emotional significance of beating United and winning first trophies in the PL era with objective quality. Taking into account the whole package, namely technique, intelligence, big-game mentality, productivity vs our domestic and European rivals, work rate, defensive contributions, big trophies, etc... Bernardo is not worse than David and Yaya. It's because he played in a better team with world stars like KDB, Haaland and now Rodri that he is a bit underrated.

IMO, he's much more of a Pep player than Yaya, who I'm not sure could press and run like Bernardo. Ultimately, Bernie has 3-4 advantages over Yaya: consistency over many years, top performances against the best in Europe, work rate and intricate play in small spaces (which Pep adores).
 
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