Manchester City 3-1 Manchester United: Hits & Flops from the game

Hit: Bernardo Silva

Influential

While David Silva ran riot through the left flank, Bernardo was right up for the task from the right wing too. He essentially played as a floater from the inner right channel as the Portuguese international moved the ball up and was a constant presence inside the opposition’s box too.

Bernardo was diligent, tenacious and intelligent from a defensive perspective as he hardly allowed United to break free from that wing. Moreover, Anthony Martial had to drop deeper as Bernardo was quickly exchanging passes and constantly making seamless transitions from the midfield to attack.

He was interlinking the play beautifully and perfectly balanced his defensive and offensive duties. The former AS Monaco star had a string of passes up his sleeve. He passed safely to either Fernandinho or Kyle Walker when he was hounded by United’s midfielders.

Then, whenever he had a good amount of space, Bernardo switched the play by making a lobbed pass to Raheem Sterling inside the box. The most typical, yet effective one was the pass which most of the players in Guardiola’s setup use to create goal-scoring opportunities.

That is, to run behind the backline and then swiftly play a lateral ball to the winger on the opposite far post. This way, Bernardo Silva brought creativity, versatility and proper defensive diligence to the overall game.