Bernardo Silva sees improvement in Manchester City after the players accepted their situation.
An unbeaten start to the season that lasted more than two months was brought to an abrupt end by a string of defeats, and the third was particularly painful as a 1-0 lead away to Sporting turned into a chastening 4-1 defeat in Ruben Amorim's last game before taking over United. Silva said afterwards that the team were in a dark place, something Pep Guardiola denied but would soon come to realise.
City were stung by their sudden drop-off, and feelings that they have not had to go through in lengthy careers at the Etihad. By Christmas they had suffered nine defeats in 13 games and effectively said goodbye to retaining the Premier League title.
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Their Champions League hopes hang by a thread as they need to overturn a 3-2 deficit at the Bernabeu against reigning and serial European champions Real Madrid if they are to avoid their earliest exit in the competition since Roberto Mancini was in charge. Silva admits that it took some getting used to, but believes the players are in better shape now as they look to pull off a spectacular comeback.
"When a team is so successful as ours was in the last eight seasons, you lose a few games, you’re not used to it, you have a bad few months and we don’t accept it," he said.
"We don’t take losing well. At that time it was really frustrating, it was three defeats in a row. I do think the team is in a better moment now - still not perfect in terms of results but we’re not in the same dark place, especially personally what I was feeling when we were in November."
