BBC Sport pundit Danny Murphy has heaped praise on Everton playmaker Bernard for his superb performance against Burnley on Wednesday.
The diminutive Brazilian was involved from start to finish at Turf Moor in his side’s 5-1 win, and Murphy was seriously impressed with his efforts.
“He [Marco Silva] made two changes. [Yerry] Mina came back in who was terrific, but I thought Bernard was the standout today,” he said on Match of the Day [26/12; 46:32].
“It was probably his best game in an Everton shirt. Technically gifted, but he had an intensity about his game today. He was closing people down, he was creative, his end product was better, he was popping up in different positions. Promising, promising performance from him.”
OPINION
This is the sort of performance Everton fans were waiting to see from Bernard. The former Shakhtar Donetsk man was buzzing in and around everything on Wednesday and he created numerous problems for the hapless Clarets. We’ve seen quality in flashes from Bernard up until now but we’d not seen him put together a 90 minute performance that really impacted the game. That was certainly the case against Sean Dyche’s side, though, and he tore the hosts to ribbons at Turf Moor. He put the chance on the plate for Lucas Digne’s second goal in the 71st minute, which really put the game to bed, and in general he was just a joy to watch from a Toffees perspective. We know that he has the quality to do this so it’s all about finding that consistency and producing this sort of a performance on a more regular basis for Marco Silva’s team. Let’s see if he can do that in the second half of the season.