News

Bernardo relishing flexibility

Brighton & Hove Albion defender Bernardo is embracing being tested in a variety of positions so far during pre-season.

By Alex Stedman • 15 July 2019

The Brazilian has continued his preparations for the 2019/20 campaign with his teammates over in Austria this week, and he reflected on the work that had been done under new head coach Graham Potter so far. 

He said, "We have a few more weeks to prepare ourselves and we need to be open-minded, to understand a new idea of playing football and try to translate that on the pitch.

"But I'm quite excited and positive because I think it's a nice style of playing football. Now we are at a moment where we are just trying to understand the possibilities that we have.

"We are having a lot of experiments, like changes of formations, trying certain players in positions, maybe playing with three at the back, sometimes four, sometimes five in midfield.”

By Paul Hazlewood

The former Red Bull Leipzig man is approaching his second season in England having made the move to the south coast from the Bundesliga last summer, and he spoke about his adaptability across the pitch being suited to what he’s seen so far.

“I like it a lot because my whole career I've played in different positions. In Salzburg I was playing as a midfielder, at Leipzig right-back, here left-back, but in the youth team I was a central defender,” he continued.

"I like to play in different positions and I think it gives more value for myself when you are always changing systems during the match. I think it brings more value for me as a player when the trainer uses you in many different positions.

"So for me it's been nice, I also like to risk a bit more and I think that's how we might be, a bit more offensive, but we will see how things go.”