Abu Dhabi: Bernardo Silva hopes what he lacks in pace he can make up for in variety down the wings for Manchester City, while not ruling out a switch to the middle in future.
“Obviously I’m very different to them,” he said of his City teammates in the same position, Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane.
“They are fast players who can take on one or two players at a time and kill the game as well.
“I try to offer different things and the manager tries to help me learn and see what I can do to help the team, sometimes by cutting in and sometimes staying wide, and I try to do my best.
“Of course, I want to be as fast as I can, especially on the wings you have to try and be fast, but I did all of my formation as a defensive midfielder, so in the middle naturally, and not wide.
“At Monaco I started playing wide a lot and feel good there, even though I’m not fast. And usually in these kind of positions you need a little bit of agility and rapidity to take on one or two players sometimes,” added the 23-year-old Portuguese, who joined from the French league side last summer for £43.5 million.
“Rui Costa and Deco played in the middle and sometimes wide and they weren’t that fast, but when you don’t have these attributes you have to try and compensate with other things and that’s what I try to do.”
Asked if he could be a future Number 10 for the club, he replied: “I see myself wherever is best for the team honestly.
“Obviously when you have players like Kevin de Bruyne, David Silva and Ilkay Gundogan who can play in those kinds of positions it’s a little difficult to find space as well. But I did all my formation as a player since the age of seven to 19 playing in the middle and in those kinds of positions, so I’m used to that, yeah.”
Of his first season with the club, where he’s scored seven goals in 44 appearances across all competitions, he said: “I’m enjoying it a lot.
“When you change it’s always complicated, when I moved from Benfica to Monaco it was difficult for the first few months and from Monaco to Manchester it’s difficult to adapt to the way the team plays.
“But it’s been feeling better and better and I hope to improve even more. I’ve learnt a lot with the staff and players and it’s been fantastic for me.”
