Forever Blue With Ian Cheeseman: Is Bernardo destined for the Ballon d’Or?

If there is one player that epitomises Manchester City’s brilliance, right now, it’s Bernardo Silva.

He’s scored three goals during the last week, the pick of them being the volley he hit at Villa Park, which seemed very casual but had a high level of technical difficulty. It was a strike that literally took my breath away when it hit the back of the net.

At Watford he reacted quickly to a loose ball to open the scoring before sweeping home another. What made that second goal so special was, again, the ease in which he looped the ball home. Despite those goals, his scoring efforts are actually the least impressive part of what I’m seeing from him week after week.

The next quality of his, that I’d like to highlight, is his quick thinking and decision making, but the trouble with that is that so many of his team mates have this ability too, so in some ways he doesn’t stand out as much. If Bernardo was at most other clubs it would, but at City Pep has got his players so well drilled that you actually stand out if you don’t make the right choice of pass or movement all the time. That’s why City are such a special team.

Jack Grealish was signed during the summer, and in many people’s eyes he was the best player at Aston Villa and yet at City, for now at least, he’s making some wrong decisions and is half a yard off the pace. For that reason he stands out but having watched different players come on, in leaps and bounds, under Pep’s tutelage, I feel sure he’ll get up to speed, both in thought and action.

When I first clapped eyes on Bernardo Silva, at Monaco, he already stood out for me because he played the Pep way. He’s unselfish, appears to have no ego to speak of, and is the ultimate team player. He’s aware of everything happening around him. The best midfielders seem to have eyes in the back of their head and he fits that cliché.

I watch games mesmerised by the close control of the players at City and as I’m trying to anticipate the next pass, it’s already happened. When I watch Bernardo I’ve got to the stage where I don’t try to guess what he’ll do, especially when cornered by several defenders. I just sit back and marvel at how he does it, confident he will.

His greatest asset, though, is something else. It’s the boundless energy that he shows throughout every game although, this is something the whole team shows. When they win the ball back from those occasional moments when the opposition have possession, every player in the team is switched on and immediately puts the other team on the back foot. I’ve never seen a team so good at this before. They can’t keep it up for the full ninety minutes but when the moments come to “switch on” they overwhelm their opponents, coming from all angles, simultaneously, like the waves in a winter storm.

Bernardo leads the press so enthusiastically and with such energy that I’m almost tempted to join in with him even though I’m sat in the stands and not in any condition to run about like he does, on a football pitch. That’s his greatest asset.

Watching the little maestro, and this great team, in the first half at Villa Park convinced me that it’s going to be another title winning season for the Blues. I know it’s still December and I know that City have just a one point advantage at the top and I also know that it goes against my City DNA to be optimistic, when I’ve seen so many failures down the years, but it’s my instinct that City will do it again, and in my opinion, even at this stage, when City retain their title and who knows, maybe the Champions League too, Bernardo should be crowned with the Ballon D’Or.