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The Manchester City midfielder said the squad’s injured players need to return if they’re to compete at their best again.
Bernardo Silva has said Manchester City ‘have to do better’ and that Saturday’s performance against Crystal Palace was ‘not good enough’.
The Premier League champions were held to a 2-2 draw at Selhurst Park and were once again far from their best levels. The draw ends City’s run of defeats on the road, having lost the last five away games, but will be seen as a disappointing result in the Premier League title race.
It leaves City in fourth place, eight points off leaders Liverpool, who have a game in hand after the Merseyside derby was postponed due to the weather earlier on Saturday.
But any faint hopes of a title challenge were diminished further at Selhurst Park in a performance that was riddled with the negative tropes that have plagued City’s recent displays. Defensive errors, slack passing and a lack of tempo were on show again against Palace, and the Eagles were well worth the point they took from the game.
It was certainly a display that frustrated Silva. “A disappointing result and performance. We could have done much better,” he told Sky Sports after the game.
“At the moment we fight and try to turn things around. It’s always a tough place to come, Crystal Palace away, but we have to do better
“We have to solve our problems in terms of injuries because that is so important. If the squad is this short it is always difficult for the players to play. We don’t feel sorry for ourselves and we have to fight anyway, but the reality right now is that it is not good enough.”
Asked what the side needed to do better, Silva responded: “I would have to watch the game again but my feeling from the game was that in terms of second balls we had some chances to run and create a few problems.
“My feeling on the pitch is that we had the ball and controlled the game, we created a few chances but we didn’t control it as much as we wanted to. We didn’t react to when we lose the ball as quickly as we normally do when we are playing well. We need to get back to do properly the simple things. If the players would come back it would help.”
City were without seven players for the Palace game - Manuel Akanji, Nathan Ake, John Stones, Rodri, Mateo Kovacic, Phil Foden and Oscar Bobb - and Pep Guardiola said the lack of options is the biggest reason his side are struggling at present.
“We have to fight with what we have at the moment but with a squad of 20 players if 13 are available it is not enough,” opined Silva. “For the schedule right now it is not good enough and we have to make an effort as a team to recover the players as quick as possible.”
City head to Turin next for a Champions League clash against Juventus on Wednesday, before hosting Manchester United in the derby at the Etihad next weekend.
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