Guardiola joined Manchester City to work with Silva

5 March 2017 20:44

Pep Guardiola described David Silva as one of the best players he has ever worked with after the Spaniard led Manchester City to a 2-0 victory at Sunderland.

Silva was instrumental as City earned their fourth consecutive Premier League victory, starting the move that led to Sergio Aguero’s opening goal and later playing Leroy Sane in to double the visitors’ lead at the Stadium of Light.

The 31-year-old was embraced by his head coach on the field after the game, and Guardiola hailed Silva’s qualities in his post-match comments.

“David is one of the best players I ever trained in my life so I am a lucky guy to be with him,” said Guardiola.

“One of the reasons why I decided to come here is because I was pleased to be with him. I was in Spain when he was with Valencia. I was in Barcelona and I thought ‘Wow! That guy is special’.

“But I was impressed the most when I met him by the fact of how competitive he is. The skills, you know them because he is a long time here in England, but how he is a winner, he has a winning mentality, he’s a fighter, he runs, he’s a fantastic player.

“Of course his performance was really good,” he added. “But on the pitch I didn’t say that to him! We are going to have dinner together. I invited him.”