Pep Guardiola’s Bernardo Silva decision exposes Man City's Gundogan and De Bruyne issue

Following the patchy performances against Tottenham and Everton, a growing number of Manchester City fans had one big question they wanted Pep Guardiola to answer.

Handily, ahead of Tuesday’s FA Cup trip to Peterborough, Guardiola went into detail over his reasons for moving Bernardo Silva - probably City’s best player this season - out of his midfield three and into the forward line.

When Pep offers a glimpse into his thoughts to this extent it can feel like a privilege and supporters are at least no longer in the dark.

“The impact of Bernardo is so important,” he said. “He is a player who likes to play inside but we struggled a bit in the last games to find him in the position in the middle.

“Normally they try to close a lot of gaps inside and it is not easy to find these players.”

Guardiola went on to explain that Bernardo returning to the right-wing for significant portions of the Spurs and Everton matches was so he could be found in possession more easily, while also citing the absences of Gabriel Jesus and Jack Grealish from his attack as factors.

“I have to settle sometimes and figure out where the spaces are and try to increase the guys close to the box creating a lot of problems,” he continued.

“But I said many times to Bernardo, many times when you are playing middle and you struggle to get the ball you can drop to the sides, right, left - try to be involved with the ball.”

Much of this does check out and, as you would expect given Guardiola’s footballing vision, the focus is exclusively on how City fare with the ball and finding solutions in that context.

But it feels like a number of the problems in the past two games have come when the Blues were not in possession and lacking what Bernardo gives them