Bernardo Silva is one of the Premier League’s most under-rated greats, making Manchester City tick year after year. However, he has admitted that he has declined in one important aspect of his game.
The new Manchester City captain was elected to his post by Pep Guardiola, who broke from his usual stance of letting his squad pick their own captain.
Bernardo is out of contract next summer, but will be aiming to reclaim the Premier League title after City lost their four-year hold on the top flight to Liverpool last season.
Morale appears high in the City camp, with the club issuing a video of players reacting to their EA 26 ratings – with Bernardo admitting that one statistic has rightly gone down.
Bernardo Silva accepts that his pace has declined with honest reaction to EA 26 rating
Seeing his EA 26 card for the first time, Bernardo Silva was told that his pace has been rated higher than close friend and fellow Portugal international Ruben Dias.
Told that the ‘good news’ was that he is faster than Dias, Bernardo replied: “That’s perfect. I love that.” However, he was then given the ‘bad news.’
“The bad news is you’re not very fast on the game,” Bernardo was told, to which he replied: “That’s okay. That’s quite real. I agree with that. But my defending is better than this.”
When Dias was shown his ratings, he was not in the mood for reacting to Bernardo’s jibes, simply saying: “I don’t want to speak about it. No comment.”
Three Man City players suggest they are due new positions as one player calls rating a ‘disgrace’
Elsewhere in the video, three players suggested they had been given the wrong position on EA 26, sending a message to Pep Guardiola about where they would prefer to play.
Matheus Nunes, most often used as a right-back under Guardiola, was clearly unhappy at being labelled as a full-back on the game, while Rico Lewis also indicated he would have preferred to be a midfielder.
Foden said: “I’m a bit surprised I’m a right winger to be fair. I do play on the wing but I thought they’d put me as a CAM this year.”
Meanwhile Rayan Cherki said his dribbling should be higher, asking ‘did you see my first goal?’, while Savinho offered an X-Rated verdict on his low shooting rating. And back-up goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli called one aspect of his rating a ‘disgrace’.
Told his ‘kicking’ was only given a rating of 69, he joked: “That’s a disgrace. I’m not going to kick up a fuss but that’s a disgrace.”
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