Savinho, Manchester City's Brazilian winger, is exceeding expectations in his debut season. Despite initial setbacks, his commitment to fitness and on-field performance has seen him become a key player for the club.
Savinho 's debut season at Manchester City is going from strength to strength - literally - thanks to a devotion to climbing the internal training charts at the City Football Academy. The £33m Brazilian was City's only major summer signing, arriving from sister club Troyes after an eye-catching season at another City Football Group outfit in Girona. 11 goals and 10 assists in La Liga persuaded City to make their move and take the first steps in transforming their front line.
Savinho grew up on his family farm milking cows, and is now impressing in the Champions League for City having conquered Spain and broken into the Brazil squad. An eye-catching debut for City in the Community Shield followed off the bench before a start in the Premier League opener at Chelsea. Two assists on his home debut helped bed him in, as did another against Arsenal at home. But his start was hampered by minor setbacks. He was replaced at half-time against Chelsea and again against Inter Milan while he missed the third game of the season with a knock. He sat out further games for rotational reasons, and went on runs of one assist in six and then none in ten as the winter drew in and City's form plummeted. 'I thought he started really well this season and then maybe go down a bit with the team,' admitted one of Savinho's captains, Kevin De Bruyne. 'But he's created a lot of chances.' In fact Savinho went 28 shots in the Premier League without a goal in the Premier League until his Christmas strike at Leicester, the most of any player in the division. It was his 23rd appearance for City in all competitions, and he added a nice assist for Erling Haaland in the process. Add a penalty won against Everton and that was enough to win City's Player of the Month award from a disappointing December. 'It's always important to get that goal,' De Bruyne said after the Leicester relief. 'It will help for him to get a bit of confidence. It will be alright.' It was - Savinho followed that up with a hat-trick of assists the next game against West Ham, with Guardiola praising his end-product in a public challenge to Jack Grealish to match that output. The secret behind Savinho's perseverance and quick start to life at City is a devotion behind-the-scenes to reducing the chance of injuries and getting himself physically ready for the speed of the Premier League. Having employed physiotherapist and performance coach Wagner Ferreira while at Girona and then in the summer back in Brazil prior to joining City, Savinho felt he was prepared for the move to the Etihad. His early setbacks were minor but enough for him to re-hire that same physiotherapist and move him to Manchester in September, with almost-instant high-level results. Savinho posts regular updates of his work in his city-centre flat to social media, focussing on injury prevention, monitoring and performance work in his own time. The results have not only seen him miss just one game through injury since signing, but his fitness data is among the best at City this season - coinciding with his upturn in form. 'Currently, all physical performance data is above the group average, demonstrating excellent results from work off the field,' Ferreira tells the Manchester Evening News. 'We did prevention in the summer to avoid problems at the beginning of the season. I prepared him to perform here at Manchester City, doing specific prevention and performance work in Brazil. He arrived at a high level and after that, he hired me to take care of his risk reduction and performance pillar.' In a season where injuries have totally derailed City's ambitions, Savinho is a success story both in fitness terms and in his impressive start to life in Manchester. Fans are now singing his name and cheering his assists, while he has clear support from his manager and captains. A baby is on the way, too. The winger has generally gone under the radar, yet no City teammate has provided more assists this season, and he is in double figures for goal involvements. With the first goal out of the way, and with Ferreira's help behind the scenes, he has given himself a solid platform to build on for the future
Manchester City Savinho Premier League Football Debut Assists Fitness Injuries
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