Pep Guardiola has a knack for thinking outside the box and his latest tactical craziness saw Bernardo Silva deployed as a defender against Aston Villa.
The Blues won 3-1, with Rodri, Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez all on target it in the first half. Ollie Watkins denied them a clean sheet with a consolation strike in the second half.
As we know by now, Guardiola is the worst manager for FPL lovers with his constant rotation and the fact that you can never seem to predict his starting XI.
Advert
And he lived up to that on Sunday, with a whole lot of eyebrows raised when the line-up was revealed and City only had three defenders in Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias and Aymeric Laporte.
However, it soon emerged that Silva was effectively playing as a left-back out of possession and then reverting to his central midfield role when City had the ball.
But with Laporte going wide, there were times where the 5ft 8 Portugal international dropped in at centre-back and challenged Watkins in the air.
Silva is such an intelligent player and mastered the position with ease. It worked a treat and with Silva always the free man, he was key in City bypassing Villa's high press, as the below clips show.
Barring goalkeeper, he has pretty much played every position for City since his move in 2017 and Guardiola claimed he has the ability to play in ten different roles after the win.
"He has the ability to play in 10 positions because he's so smart," Guardiola said.
"He's not tall but he's smart. I like Rico [Lewis] in these positions like [Fabian] Delph or [Oleksandr] Zinchenko in the past.
"Rico is the best to play in these small gaps, small positions, he’s so intuitive, but today I wanted Bernardo there, I need him. Bernardo is so important for us.”
He had 107 touches across 90 minutes and finished the game on the right wing in the second half when Riyad Mahrez was brought off but fans couldn't believe his showing at left-back.
One wrote: "We’ve seen Bernardo Silva play as a DM, CM, RW, LW, 10 & CF. You can now add hybrid CB to the list. This happened on a few occasions against Villa. Laporte going wide with Bernardo Silva dropping to cover. Football intelligence personified. Against quick FWDs too."
As second said: "Bernardo has got to be one of my favourite player of all time. No G/A No flashy balls. Just help the team at any position singlehandedly carrying fully flowing Pep's system."
A third added: Pep is using Bernardo Silva at left back & City are up 3-0 at half time, if they lost this game it would’ve been 'Pep is overthinking!!' The truth is he 'overthinks' a lot but the masses only take note when he loses."
Another said: "I’m all for this bernardo silva left back/centre back/sweeper keeper."
A fifth opined: "Bernardo Silva playing as central defensive left-back that sometimes helps the attack. Pep is insane."
Topics: Pep Guardiola, Manchester City, Premier League, Bernardo Silva, Aston Villa
Josh Lawless