Bernardo Silva blends Manchester Metropolis previous and current to boost one Pep Guardiola query

It may need been a scene from a coaching session over any of the seven seasons they have been teammates. With a change of tempo, darted previous . This time, it was on the Etihad Stadium pitch. captains previous and current are two of ’s favorite ever gamers, a pair with the technical expertise and footballing mind to attraction to a supervisor who’s each purist and theorist.

“Gundo and Leroy [Sane] are like brothers as a result of the recollections we’ve collectively are actually particular,” mirrored Silva. However their return to the Etihad Stadium was for one night time solely, within the colors of a Galatasaray staff who have been crushed 2-0. Out of contract in the summertime, Silva might quickly be part of them within the ranks of the previous Metropolis gamers. “I’ve an concept [of what will happen], nevertheless it’s not a superb time to talk about it,” mentioned a person “When the time comes, me and the membership will announce it and you’ll know.”

(Getty Photos)

For now, although, Silva is the bridge between previous and future. He and Nathan Ake have been the one Metropolis gamers over the age of 27 . Seven of the 14 arrived within the final three switch home windows; had Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi been eligible, that quantity might have been greater.

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“It is fairly clear that the membership determined to go for the renovation of the squad, a squad that gained loads that wanted perhaps some new blood, of their opinion,” mentioned Silva. A brand new-look aspect got here eighth within the Champions League’s group part and are second within the Premier League. Their skipper added: “What I really feel is that this staff has lots of potential to be a lot, a lot better than what it’s now, however we’re positively in a a lot better place than we have been three months in the past and we have been six or 9 months in the past.”

A brand new-look Manchester Metropolis are into the final 16 of the Champions League (Getty Photos)

Change just isn’t confined to new faces. Silva outlined how Metropolis’s costly revamp has given them two sorts of groups. There have been ideas they’re much less like a Guardiola aspect than earlier than; certainly, they’ve had their lowest share of possession within the Premier League in the course of the Catalan’s tenure. However there are the technical gamers and the bodily gamers, those that can maintain the ball and run with it or after it at velocity.

And Silva and his previous colleague Sane characterize opposites amongst Guardiola wingers. The Portuguese is a midfielder by skillset. So was Andres Iniesta, who generally performed off the left in his Barcelona staff. the broad males have been Jack Grealish and Silva, neither a flying winger, however every a person who may, and did, maintain the ball.

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Semenyo, like Omar Marmoush and Jeremy Doku, is one other sort of broad man: sooner, extra suited to lightning counter-attacks. However extra like Sane or Raheem Sterling; or, to again in Guardiola’s Bayern Munich days, Arjen Robben.

Antoine Semenyo is the most recent instance of a unique sort of Pep Guardiola wideman (Getty Photos)

“So if we’ve Jeremy, Semenyo, Omar, Erling [Haaland], all 4 of them on the pitch, you realize that you’ll have a extra direct, transitional recreation,” mentioned Silva. If Metropolis have had much less management at occasions this yr, However they will pack the center of the pitch. Typically this season, their nominal proper winger has really been stationed infield, whether or not he has been or Phil Foden.

“When you have Cherki, Foden, Tijjani [Reijnders], me, Nico [Gonzalez], Rodri, all on the pitch, you are going to have extra possession,” Silva defined. “You are going to be much less direct. I do know Pep, and I do know that his concepts do not change a lot. He is aware of what introduced us success. He is aware of the best way we’ve to play to win titles. I do not suppose it is going to change loads when it comes to that. However positively with completely different gamers on the pitch, you play another way and it’s a must to use the standard of your gamers. For instance [against Galatasaray], with Erling and Omar, we positively went extra in behind and we tried to be a bit extra direct.”

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There’s a wider query if Guardiola is a chameleon or a continuing, a person who has modified in keeping with developments elsewhere within the recreation or the move grasp who has outlined an period and whose choice is to return to the soccer he perfected at Barcelona and which took Metropolis to a few of their best triumphs.

Manchester Metropolis supervisor Pep Guardiola (PA Wire)

Silva was intrinsically concerned in most of his successes on the Etihad. He arguably has a greater understanding of any current Guardiola participant, with the attainable exception of Gundogan. And he insisted: “The ideas of Pep Guardiola won’t ever change.”