Having endured a trophy less season in his first foray into English football, Pep Guardiola made quick to clear the deadwood at the Ethiad Stadium with lots of old guards leaving the men in blues. What followed was two high profile transfers of much sought after young guns. One of them being the Portuguese and Monaco playmaker, Bernardo Silva.
Being brought in to the blue part of Manchester for a fee of 50 million Euros, Bernardo Silva will surely like to justify his price tag and fit into Guardiola’s system, as he builds a young team to challenge for the English title and grab bragging rights in Europe.
Fantasy Football Potential
Silva turned out 37 times for Ligue 1 champions AS Monaco in 2016/17, as they secured their first title since 1999/00 season, making 33 starts and 4 appearances from the bench. Having played a total of 2,800 league minutes, he scored 8 goals while registering 9 assists (second only to Monaco team mate Lemar). He also earned 3 yellow cards during that time.
Silva has an impressive pass completion rate of 81.1%, having delivered an average of 31.2 passes and 1.6 key passes per game. Putting it into perspective Manchester City had 86% successful passes as a team, during 2016/17 campaign.
In UEFA Champions league, Bernardo Silva made 11 appearances, playing 921 minutes, scoring 2 goals and registering 1 assist. His shots per game reduced to 1.1, while successful passes increased to 85.4% per game. His passes per game increased to 36.6 while playing European football but key passes got down to 1.3.
Playing primarily as a right winger, he can also be deployed in the middle of the park as an attacking midfielder or down the left wing. With pre-season starting soon, it will be worth scouting him to see how he gels in with the team and develops chemistry with his new teammates.
Having hordes of young talent around him at City, he may initially not directly get into first 11, but at the same time, he may very well make the right wing his own at city. Man City shall be a terrific prospect with youth fuelling the team in the form of Sane, de Bruyne, Sterling, Jesus, Stones and now Silva, with the experienced ones like Aguero, Silva, Toure and Kompany there to nurture and inspire these talents.
It’s to be seen how much Bernardo Silva will be priced but anywhere in the region of 7.0m to 8.0m will be fair. He is a good option for fantasy managers, but it may be wise to weigh one’s options with other midfielders, wingers and other newcomers.
If you have enjoyed this early view of the fantasy potential of those moving teams this transfer window, be sure to check the others here.
Written by Devdeep Dutta (@devdeepdcube)
