Bernardo Silva said what Pep Guardiola didn't on Sunday after defeat to Tottenham.
Where the Manchester City manager told reporters afterwards his team had played quite well in their 1-0 defeat, his midfielder was less enthusiastic about the performance. As an analysis since the World Cup, it is hard to argue with.
“The team needs to do better. It’s not good enough for the standards that we have built over the last six seasons. We’ll find a way to do better than what we have been in the last few months," he said. “Of course, we're going to continue fighting, aware that Arsenal is in a better position. There are a lot of games left and we fortunately have the opportunity to play them twice, as we haven't played them yet.
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"So, we could look at our position a bit more favourably in that we can still try and take six points from them. We know it won't be easy against such a strong team. There are a lot of games left, we know they're in a much better position than we are, eight points is not a small gap, but we'll continue fighting.”
There are many technical aspects to this City team that aren't quite functioning right now, and Guardiola requires very specific things from his players in each position. In that sense, it is old-fashioned to think that players can just roll up their sleeves and do better.
But, in the same way that Kevin De Bruyne and Aymeric Laporte (and others in the final game) took responsibility at the end of last season to force City over the line, there is a glut of players in the squad who have it within their ability to up their game. Apart from Riyad Mahrez, Jack Grealish, Nathan Ake and Rico Lewis, nobody can say they are even playing close to their potential.
The reality is that the title race isn't nearly as over as it feels. We may be in February but the league is only just past the halfway point because of the break for the World Cup.
City have to play Arsenal twice, and could beat them twice. Right now, it is easy to see that but also easy to see the Blues slipping up in enough other games for those to only have a difference in determining whether they come second or third.
Every player needs to adopt Bernardo's attitude and know that they need to raise their level. It isn't going to cure all of the team's issues, but putting energy into doing that rather than taking their frustrations out on each other and the officials would be a significant start.
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