Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has given an interview to ESPN Brasil this week, which turned out to be very nice to watch.
The manager spoke about the struggles he had adapting his work to England, players who were important in the title campaign, what he does during his time off, and obviously a bit about Brazilian football.
But there was one of the questions which stood out in the interview, conducted by Natalie Gedra, which was the comparison between the two best midfield duos the manager has ever trained.
Apart from Lionel Messi, Guardiola’s reign in Spain was much based on Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta, who got the 2nd and 3rd spots in the 2010 Ballon d’Or.
Now with Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva doing so well under his command at Manchester City, he was asked which of this duos he would pick if he had to chose only one.
“Yes, compare them, yes. I compare them because the four are incredible. If we had so much success in Barcelona, it’s because the midfield was very important.”
“Xavi was a player of much more control, very dynamic, of not losing a ball. He controlled the rhythm of the game, read perfectly when to accelerate. Andres is similar in the change of pace.
“And David Silva is a mix of the two. David also knows when to control and to sprint.”
“And Kevin is more exuberance, it’s more… he’s not so much of control, he doesn’t master control time. He’s more of dynamics, of arriving, of coming, of moving, of kicking, of crossing, I appear here, I appear there, I come, I defend, I attack.”
Pep Guardiola is a very happy man at the moment, and clearly enjoying his success at Manchester City.
