Bobo32
Senior Member
Now that I look, I see that he reached more than 10G + 10A in one of his seasons at City (13G+14A), otherwise he's pretty close to it almost every season, between 18-20 G+A in total over 50 games. I thought he'd be a bit lower.
But question remains whether he's benefitting from City's play or if he can go to any team and elevate them. That's the type of player we need after Frenkie having failed to do so. Especially when paying 80m. No more passengers/system players who heavily rely on how it looks around them.
Of course Valdes, Pique, Busquets, Xavi, Pedro and to a degree Iniesta were all "system players". Bernardo Silva is no Messi, but he is the best option possible - a player who can both play positional play from the middle, as well as decide games with his dribbling etc from the outside. He is potentially filling two gaps, improving two parts of what is needed in Barcelona.
He IS benefiting from City's play, as any decent player should, but he is also helping to build their play, and what Barcelona should look for is a return to a play where all players can benefit from the structure.
A player like Dembele for example is benefiting massively from Barcelonas current structure, but he is also destroying the structure at the same time.