In terms of attacking talent, few teams in world football can compare with Manchester City.
Leroy Sané, Raheem Sterling, Sergio Agüero, and Gabriel Jesus can feature anywhere across the front line, while the mercurial pair of Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva drift in behind the front line, finding space and causing havoc.
In Bernardo Silva, however, they have a player who is capable of filling either role in the attacking phase with no drop-off in terms of quality.
When the Portuguese international joined Manchester City before the start of the 2017/18 season, the speed of the deal (Silva joined just days after the end of the season on the 27th of May 2017) and the price (a reported £43M) surprised many.
With the benefit of hindsight, we now see the club moving quickly to secure a player who would become an important part of not only the squad but also the first team.
Silva played more first-team minutes in the 2017/18 season than any other outfield player for The Citizens.
So far this season, we have mainly seen Bernardo Silva play as one of the two ‘8’s in coach Pep Guardiola’s system.
In the first game of the season, the Portuguese played wide on the right side of the front three and even took up a position alongside Sergio Agüero in a 4-4-2 formation during the defensive phase.
Modern football is often likened to a chess match, and the Spanish coach views the entire board around five moves ahead of everyone else; thus, the importance of a player like Bernardo Silva.
In just three competitive matches into the season, Silva has already established himself as one of the first names on the City’s XI.
Bernardo Silva Positioning
One of the most interesting aspects of Pep Guardiola’s tactics and Manchester City’s style of play this season has been how they have used Bernardo Silva as a mobile chess piece.
Even though it is just a small sample size, the Portuguese international has already played three different roles for The Sky Blues.
Bernardo Silva As The Left Central Midfielder
In the Community Shield match against Chelsea, the unofficial start to the English season, Guardiola opted to rest David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne, the two ‘8s’ from last season’s record-breaking season, with Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva taking their places.
The Portuguese played on the left of the central midfield, filling David Silva’s role.
It says something about Bernardo Silva’s quality that there was little if any, drop-off in quality between the two.
From this position, Silva would play higher up the pitch than his young English teammate, aiming to link up with the lone striker or advance into the left-side half-space, where he would link up with the left winger.
The “8” position is an interesting spot for a player like Bernardo Silva, who is predominantly left-footed, although he can use both feet.
When picking up the ball on the left side of the field, a right-footed player will naturally look to move centrally back towards his ‘strong side’; this opens up more of the pitch that can be accessed from the first touch.
Bernardo Silva As The Right Central Midfielder
In their first match of the Premier League season, we saw another slight shift in Bernardo Silva’s positioning, as he moved across to play as the ‘8’ on the other side, with the German international İlkay Gündoğan as the left-sided central midfielder.
The most interesting aspect of this came in the defensive phase, when City dropped into a 4-4-2 defensive block, with the two ‘8’s rotating into different positions.
Bernardo Silva moved forward to join the forward line and press from the front, taking up one of the front two positions.
İlkay Gündoğan, on the other hand, dropped into a deeper position alongside Fernandinho as part of the chain of four across the midfield.
Once again, Silva showed his versatility.
Bernardo Silva As The Right-winger
In their most recent match, at home against Huddersfield, in a 6-1 win, we saw Bernardo Silva take up yet another position, this time wide on the right side in a 4-3-3.
This season, Pep Guardiola has shown his ability to consistently develop Manchester City’s tactics, collectively and individually.
In the first match of the season, a 2-0 win away to Arsenal, England international Kyle Walker played as the right-back.
Last season with Walker at right back and Silva on the right of the attack, the full-back would move high at every opportunity, holding the width and moving the right attacker inside.
This season, we have already seen Walker take up a more inverted position against Arsenal.
In this position, he moved inside, allowing the right-sided attacker to maintain his width.
In the recent match against Huddersfield, we saw John Stones move to an apparent right-back role.
However, in the attacking phase, the English international defender took up a position slightly inside on the right of a chain of three defenders, with Aymeric Laporte and Vincent Kompany.
This movement allowed Bernardo Silva freedom and space to operate on the right side.
Bernardo Silva Movement And Interplay
Whilst Bernardo Silva’s positioning is essential, Guardiola is well known to demand correct positioning from his players.
Silva’s movement and interplay in the attacking phase are the key to his fantastic early-season performances.
In the match against Arsenal, the Portuguese performed as one of the key players in creating situations in and around the final third where City would have an overload against the defenders.
The key lies in Silva’s movement as an individual and as part of a collective unit.
City are exceptionally difficult to play against, and multiple reference points (space and ball) are cues for them to move into different zones on the field.
Here, for example, we see a situation where Bernardo has possession initially centrally.
As he turns to the left side, the left-winger makes a diagonal run into space higher on the field.
This movement pulls a defensive player out of position, allowing Silva to move over and occupy the vacated space.
This movement creates a 2v1 on the left side with the left-back, and a simple one-two allows him to move into space behind the defensive structure, creating a goalscoring opportunity for The Citizens.
This time, we see Bernardo Silva working on the opposite side.
His understanding of space allows him to work in areas that cause the opposition’s defensive structure the most problems.
When Silva makes the vertical pass to the right-sided attacking player, he does not stop there or even make the ‘natural’ move centrally towards the penalty area.
Instead, the Portuguese makes a run that is unlikely to see him take possession of the ball back, around to the outside of the winger receiving the ball.
This run forces one of the opposition defenders, the left-back, to move out to cover the run made by Silva.
This, in turn, opens up space for the right-sided attacker to drive centrally into a 1v1 situation with the left centre-back.
This example is taken from the match at home to Huddersfield with Silva as the right-winger.
As the play begins, Manchester City have already developed a 3v2 situation on that side.
The entire passing combination takes just a few seconds to complete, showing the speed at which City can attack your weaknesses.
As Bernardo Silva takes possession of the ball from David Silva, playing again as the ‘8’, he plays it back to John Stones, playing on the right of the chain of three defenders, and then immediately moves high in behind the overload.
The speed of this movement speaks to Silva’s trust and belief in John Stones.
He has the quality to play the vertical through ball to find Silva’s run.
Finally, we have an example of the movement that Silva made to score his first, and so far only, goal of the season in the match against Arsenal.
As Benjamin Mendy drives for the touchline, having moved high from the left-back position, we see Sergio Agüero make the typical striker’s run into the 6-yard box as he looks for a driven cross.
This movement draws the Arsenal defenders in, who also move in to cover this threat.
Instead of making the same vertical run from the back of the penalty area, though, Bernardo Silva makes a delayed run across the face of the goal into the space vacated by Aguero and the defenders.
As Mendy pulls the ball back instead of across goal, Silva meets it centrally for a relatively easy goal.
After the match, we heard that former Arsenal player and now City coach Mikel Arteta had told Mendy just before the goal to look for that kind of cross.
Still, Silva’s quality of movement was just as important as the instruction.
Conclusion
With the news that Kevin De Bruyne has already suffered a significant knee injury, Bernardo Silva will have a significant role to play for City this coming season.
With his versatility and ability to play in various formations, it is clear why he is one of Guardiola’s favourite players.
