6 days ago
8
Manchester City saw their unbeaten run come to an end at Aston Villa and Bernardo Silva was critical of the performance.
Bernardo Silva slammed Manchester City's defensive performance against Aston Villa and said they had been "two seconds late" to every duel.
City lost 1-0 at Villa Park after Matty Cash's 19th minute goal, and club captain Silva wasn't happy with what he saw, particularly when it comes to the defensive efforts and pressing.
He also felt the Blues were second best in the 50-50s as they struggled to impose themselves on the game. Erling Haaland twice tested Emiliano Martinez after Cash's goal but City never really looked like getting back into the game.
"I would say we played quite well with the ball. Our offensive concepts were quite good. Even if we didn't score we had chances," said Silva.
"We made them defend deep and they struggled in some moments. On the other side of the game we were really bad defensively. Our pressing was really bad, we arrived two seconds late to every duel.
"That was the feeling even though our offensive concepts were quite good, but if the pressing is not good you allow the game to be a transitional game. When our pressing is not good we do not play well.
"Obviously they are a very good team, this is a Champions League team, a team with a lot of quality players. I do believe our defensive concepts were really bad today."
City were angry at the decision to award Villa a corner from which they scored. They felt Matheus Nunes should have been awarded a foul for the challenge by Lucas Digne after putting the ball behind.
"It's a minor decision, it's not like a penalty or a red card that changed the game. The reality is it should've been a foul," Silva said.
"It wasn't and they scored from the corner. That was a bit frustrating for us, but it's football. These small things is not that important. The referee said he thought it was a corner. People make mistakes, just say sorry and go on to the next one. Don't be arrogant. Like I say, it was not because of that that we lost the game. It was not about the referee today.
"It's still a long way to go. I don't want to draw too many conclusions. We would love to be at the top but we're not. It's way too early to draw conclusions."
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