Silva shone despite his baby fears says Pep
PEP GUARDIOLA has praised David Silva for maintaining his high standards at Manchester City despite the health worries over his baby son.
Silva has missed several training sessions and games to fly back to Spain where his partner gave birth prematurely at Christmas to Mateo, who was fighting for his life.
Happily, the baby is out of danger and Silva will be in the team tonight to play Stoke, although he has been given permission to miss the squad’s trip to meet club owner Sheikh Mansour in Abu Dhabi this week.
“We’ve said many times family is the most important thing,” said Guardiola. “He wants to be here but sometimes he needs to go back and see his son and wife, who are doing well. Of course he knows he has to train because you cannot play good if you don’t train, so he trains on his own in Valencia. He went back after the game against Basle last week. He is a huge competitor for me. He is shy but on the pitch he never hides.”
Sergio Aguero will miss the match after sustaining a knee injury in training but should be back for City’s next game at Everton on March 31.
Stoke manager Paul Lambert, whose side are second from bottom, said Guardiola helped turn Xherdan Shaqiri into a Premier League star.
The Potters playmaker, who has scored three times in his last four games, spent 18 months under Guardiola at Bayern Munich before being sold in 2015 after struggling to nail down a place.
Lambert, a huge fan of German football after playing for Borussia Dortmund, said: “Big clubs bring you on. You’re playing with great players and have the expectancy of having to win trophies. Shaq has been at those type of clubs.
“You could say things never worked out for him at Bayern, but he was deemed good enough to be there. He was only a kid at a massive football club with Arjen Robben in front of him.”