🎶 Bernardooooooooo! 🎶 It’s safe to say that the Soccermanager Blog is in quite the good mood! And what better way to show off our versatility than looking at one of the best versertile players in world football at the moment. Not only is he a technical maverick, Bernardo is one of the most hard working players in the current game, but what allows him to stand out from the crowd is his EXCEPTIONAL tactical versatility and that big brain that is found within such a small frame. Bernardo’s road to the top was far from conventional with his career starting out in his nation Portugal as a Right Winger playing in the Benfica youth set up. He was soon to realize that staying in his home nation would not have been the best career choice. Instead, he chose to move to a different country to develop in a higher quality league. The league that he chose was France and the team whom he decided to develop at was AS Monaco. During his stay in the Monaco first team, Bernardo played more like a creative player outwide, cutting into his prefered left foot and he was like prime Messi as he caused French defenses all over the country a whole ton of problems throughout his time there. This led Pep Guardiola to prioritizing his signature in the summer of 2017. And, ofcourse, it was the tactica1l brilliance of Mr. Guardiola that evolved Bernardo into the versatile beast that he is at the moment. Make no mistake, if it wasn’t for that tactical genius, Bernardo may have ended up being similar to Riyad Mahrez or mold into a David Silva type player. Safe to say that football is better with such an attack minded versatile player.
PLAYER BIO
At 28 years young, Bernardo is heading into prime time and with all of the experience that he has, along with his exceptional trophy cabinet, I can assure you that he won’t be leaving that 94 mark anytime soon (well, if Saudi Arabia dosen’t turn his head)
BEST ATTRIBUTES WITHIN SM23
As we take a look at Bernardo’s SM23 attributes, everything looks pretty A Okay. Let’s move unto- Hold on…… What’s that I see there….. A 70 for ‘Work Rate’?!?!?! 😱🫨😅🚶……. Okay, so how on earth does Bernardo only have so little of Work Rate??? I think this might’ve been like an error or a mistake… But, if this was purposefully done then I’m honestly lost for words cause this guy is one of THE MOST HARDWORKING players in the entire world! To see this really hurts my footballing heart 😕 💔
BEST ROLES
Bernardo’s versatility is all about ensuring that he is optimized in every role that we choose to give him. So, it will be very essential that we aim to first play him as our ‘Advanced Playmaker’ since it is his best role, but Bernanrdo is also exceptional when being asked to play as a ‘Technical Winger’ as well. We will learn more about identifying both roles later on in the episode
Bernardo’s best position is indeed off the right since he has that exceptional technical dribbling ability. But, as we now know, there is the possibility of playing him as either a ‘FAP’ or a ‘TW’One of the best things about the 4-3-3 formation is that it allows for a lot of versatility (just like Bernardo, lol). The same thing applies for both A and B.Although I wouldn’t advise that we use Bernardo in a front 4 formation or even a 4-4-2, he is still good enough to do a job here. If you chose to play him here, I advise that you play him just like how you will play him in the other formations, but there must be a set of different players that are neccessary to get the most out of the 4-4-2 formations…. Bernardo is all about playing as an ‘Advanced Playmaker’ so whenever you choose to play him within the no.10 position it means that you want him to play in central areas while floating around, rather than playing as the centre of each attack ( if you catch my drift…)As always, you know it’s very imperative that we see how Bernardo is likely to play within a 3 at the back formation, and I personally believe that he will be at his absolute best if we decide to use the 3-4-2-1, in particular
HOW TO BEST USE HIM
All in all, the versatile Bernardo is some one that we still want to play in his best position and using his best role. Therefore, we should be aiming to use the above role to ensure he’s at his top best while playing for us
WHO ARE THE BEST TEAMATES?
Remember that Bernardo is the other world class player that actually doesn’t need to have any specific player around him in order to perform well. But, seeing that these episodes are all about showcasing our tactical nuance, we will be using the same formula from KDB’s episode:
The two positions that should be considered as important to have along with Bernardo will be a ‘BWM’ and a ‘TM’. The ‘Target Man’ is particularly essential since Bernardo will not be the type of player who will play thread the needle type of passes and will prefer to be a floater roaming around and making runs off the F(C). The only real difference we will see is if we want to play Bernardo as either an ‘Advanced Playmaker’ or a ‘Technical Winger’. Pay attention, cause I will only be saying this once since it goes for every other formation within this episode: if you want to play Bernardo as an ‘FAP’, then you will need a ‘Wingback’ playing behind of him, while if you want to play him as a ‘TW’ then he will need a ‘Fullback’ behind him. The same goes for the 4-3-3’s….. And the 4-4-2’s….. 😅Playing Bernardo as your No.10 means that your are granting him with a lot of freedom from the centre of the park If you choose to play man like Bernardo in a back 3 formation, then I would advise against playing him as a ‘Technical Winger’ since this formation won’t suit that style of role. Therefore, we should stick to keeping him as a ‘FAP’ only
The Versatile Portugese is a wonderful way for us to end this week’s episodes. I hope you’ve had a blast and are ready for next week after taking your well deserved weekend break. We’ll be back in action again very soon. Take care soccermanagerites! ✌️ 💚
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