Wingers Always Want To Compete – Pep Guardiola

Bernardo Silva played a rotation role for City last season, but he left a positive impression on his boss after overcoming Chelsea

Pep Guardiola hailed Bernardo Silva’s Community Shield performance as “a masterpiece” and suggested the Portuguese is currently one of the first names on his Manchester City team sheet.

Silva was instrumental in City’s 2-0 success over Chelsea at Wembley, setting up Sergio Aguero to score the second goal and operating in a more central berth with Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva not involved.

Only De Bruyne and Ederson appeared in more Premier League games than Bernardo Silva last season – though 20 of his outings were from the bench – and the champions’ manager Guardiola admits the 23-year-old is at the forefront of his mind as he approaches the new campaign.

“The performance of Bernardo Silva was a masterpiece,” the City boss said.

“Everybody knows the wingers want to compete. Right now, it is Bernardo and 10 players more. Right now. But in 11 months it depends on what they show me on the pitch.

“Bernardo is far away from other guys, so that’s why, at the moment, he plays.

“He is so intelligent, he is clever. He is a fighter, a competitor. I think he is the guy most beloved in our team and today he showed me a lot of things.

“He came back earlier and that showed me again a lot of things and that’s one of the reasons we won today. It was for many reasons. One of the reasons was Bernardo.”