Bernardo: Motivation is to win - and keep winning | OneFootball

Bernardo says the City players are determined to get back to the high standards that have won us so many trophies in recent years.

The tireless Portuguese star, who has averaged 82 minutes of game time for all our Premier League matches this season, believes the green shoots of recovery have been evident in our last two games against Everton and Leicester.

But he admits there is still a way to go before the reigning Premier League champions are anywhere near back to our best.

“It’s difficult to say right now, but we’re still very motivated to do a lot better than how we ended 2024,” said Bernardo.

“It was a positive year for Manchester City - we won the Premier League, and we set the new record of winning four consecutive league titles, so it’s been a very positive year overall.

“But it’s ended in a way that we didn’t expect nor how we want. We have other things to fight for in all of the other competitions that we are still in, and we’re going to give our all to get closer to the level that we’ve lost over the last two months.”

Though a catalogue of injuries played a big part in our lack of form in November and December, Bernardo believes there were occasions when results should have been better.

“Even with the injuries we’ve had we should have won a lot more matches than we have,” he admitted.

“But having the whole squad always makes us be more competitive, always helps us get closer to winning. And of course, the level has to be higher.

“We have to improve; we all have to do a bit better to try to get back to the same confidence level as before.

“It’s not easy after you lose so many games, but once you’ve won two, three, four games in a row then I am sure that the team will be back to the level that it was at before.

“And as I said, we are very motivated. Personally, I already sense a little difference in the performance levels of the last two or three games from what we showed before.

“We’re confident that we will have Manchester City back to what it should be very soon, which is a team that wins and wins and wins.

“That’s what people have come to expect over the last seven, eight years.

“For almost all of us, myself included, this has been the first time in our careers that we have experienced a situation like this.

“But the solution is to be all together in doing a little better individually to return the team to the level that it deserves to be at.

“Pep will of course be the first to want to, to study all that he has to put the team closer to winning games. Win the games, keep winning games and we’ll put ourselves closer to trophies.

“We’re thinking about winning the next game and we’re all together in that.

“We’re still in the Champions League and the FA Cup and we’re in the Club World Cup, because the Premier League is very complicated and we’ll be there fighting day after day to get the team closer to achieving these objectives.”

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