Riyad Mahrez's failed Manchester City transfer gives Bernardo Silva a chance to show not only his quality but versatility

The playmaker has been shunted around, but wherever he plays he now has a key role for City

Bernardo Silva is an under-the-radar star for Man City (Getty)

After a month of excess that followed a year of excess, Manchester City’s squad to battle for the quadruple is set.

It would, had Pep Guardiola got his way, have been gilded by the addition of Riyad Mahrez on a wild deadline day but Leicester City – as is their right – eventually decided they didn’t want to do business.

For Mahrez, left “depressed” by City’s unwillingness to stump up Leicester’s asking price, an awkward few days await. The Algerian’s transfer request may have come on January 30th but, in many ways, his previous one had never been revoked.

For many, though, City’s attempt at delving back into the market was a sign of the Premier League’s increasingly grotesque largesse. Why would Manchester City, already furnished with the most expensive team of all-time and a brilliant, awe-inspiring frontline, need to add Mahrez to their raft of attacking talents?

What of the likes of Phil Foden, currently sidelined by injury, who might just be England’s future as well as City’s? Or Brahim Diaz, the sensational young Spaniard who ended deadline day much like Mahrez – distraught, lying on the ground – but in this instance due to a horror tackle by West Brom’s Matt Phillips rather than a dream being dashed.

Leroy Sane’s injury forced City into the market but was it necessary when they already had such talent for every position? Necessity has little to do with transfers for the elite of European football but when it comes to pressing players into action, it is what stimulates invention.

Brahim Diaz was the subject of a horror challenge from Matt Phillips (Getty)

For Bernardo Silva this week that meant being shunted around again. This time he was playing the Sane role, but it has previously been that of his namesake David, centre-forward Sergio Aguero or even the Premier League’s standout player this season, Kevin De Bruyne.

“I’ve never played much on the left but this season I’ve played a few times on the left, on the right, in the middle - as a number nine in the last game,” he said after his side’s 3-0 dismissal of Albion.

“It’s not my normal position but I feel comfortable to play in the middle as well. I just try to do my best to help the team. It’s good to try new positions to develop and to learn - when you play in different places on the pitch you learn a lot of different things so it’s good to try new things.”


 Bernardo has played a number of positions recently as injuries stacked up 
 (Getty Images)

Bernardo, a diminutive playmaker, was always going to be coached up as a number 10 and the Portuguese academy system made him so, before shunting him to the right wing to fill a gap at Benfica’s ‘B’ team. His polyvalence will now be relied upon for the rest of this Mahrez-less campaign for City, with the Champions League, Premier League and two cups on the line.

“I know I’m not a fast player like Sane or Sterling, I know I cannot do some of the things that they can,” he added.

But what Bernardo does have is a skill set that combines well with those around him. David Silva is now the veteran master, wise and dearly missed as he dealt with a family situation. De Bruyne is, as above, the best player on English soil and capable of doing things with little effort that most players would spend hours on the training ground failing to do. Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling have the speed highlighted by Bernardo but the German is also strong as an ox, a strapping man who contrasts with Sterling’s flea-like zipping around the field.

Bernardo, somewhat underrated this season, has Sterling’s dinky stature but David Silva’s passing range, some of the sublime touches of De Bruyne and an ability to ghost into space like Gabriel Jesus or Aguero. With such a cast of stars around him attracting defenders’ attention, he will increasingly get a chance to show it as well.

Guardiola will no doubt be disappointed to have missed out on Mahrez, who at his best in 2016 was unstoppable as a wide forward. He has made it clear it would have been a dream to play for this Manchester City team and he no doubt would have added incredible depth to a squad that barely needed it.

But if the transfer window agonisingly creaking shut was a Sliding Doors moment for Mahrez, it may well prove also to be one for Bernardo, who has not made many headlines during his first year in Manchester but is now going to have plenty of opportunities –in plenty of positions – to show just how important he is