Manchester City’s new club captain Bernardo Silva expressed his excitement for the future of the club following their 5-2 win over Juventus is the Club World Cup.
After enduring a troubled campaign last season and going trophyless, City looked peerless in their triumph in their final group game which showed their intent and capability of ending as world champions come July 13.
“We’ve always been potential winners in all competitions that we play. Obviously it’s just one game, but we’re happy that the performance was the way it was. It shows that we’re improving, we’re coming back to the levels and to the standards that we got people used to at this club,” Silva said.
“That’s good. That’s a good sign for next season. Not only for this competition, but we want to build to the whole season, to the whole year. What happened last year was quite disappointing for all of us. We want to change, we want to be better. Today was a great performance and it shows that we can do it again.”
New arrivals Rayan Ait-Nouri at left-back and Tijjani Reijnders alongside Rayan Cherki in midfield showed against Juve that they have the profiles to fit into the City set up immediately.
Silva, who was recently named the club’s new skipper, is tasked with the job of integrating an exciting crop of new players into Guardiola’s first team.
“It’s probably one of the biggest honours of my career. I’m going to start my ninth season at the club. We went through a lot of fantastic moments and some disappointments as well. All that experience, I will try to pass it to the younger guys,” he said, while explaining he was also part of a collective leadership.
“It’s about each one of us being our own leader and helping the guy next to us in the dressing room. The same way that we helped the other guys, I’m counting on Ruben [Dias], on Rodri, on Erling [Haaland], on all the guys to help me. Because I will need that help to help the team achieve a lot of things and hopefully win titles,” he said.
