Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan has heaped praise on his fellow teammate Sergio Aguero ahead of the upcoming season.
The blue half of Manchester were simply astonishing last year as they ran away with the Premier League title almost from the off. Pep Guardiola’s side amassed a Premier League record haul of 100 points whilst breaking a number of records en-route to their title win.
City’s attacking threat was once again personified by the talents of Aguero who is currently the club’s all-time top scorer, and on Sunday he broke the 200-goal mark for the club as City defeated Chelsea 2-0 in the Community Shield, courtesy of two Aguero strikes.
Gundogan spoke to reporters (via Sky Sports) about the Argentine forward, claiming that the club are lucky to possess the talents of both Aguero and Brazilian youngster Gabriel Jesus.
“We feel very lucky to have Sergio in our team, a striker like him,” said Gundogan.
“On top of that even Gabriel (Jesus) with his ability and his quality.
“We have two great strikers and feel very, very happy.”
It took Aguero just thirteen minutes to break the deadlock at Wembley after some neat work from talented midfielder Phil Foden, who found the path of the Argentine before he thumped the ball past Chelsea goalkeeper Willy Caballero.
His second half strike secured the win for City and their first piece of silverware entering the new season.
Guardioala Wants Stones to Play in Midfield
Stones started the game centrally in the back four as the Premier League champions City ran out 2-0 winners against FA Cup holders Chelsea.
Later in the game, Vincent Kompany was introduced from the bench and Stones was pushed forward into midfield, a position he looked comfortable in despite his unfamiliarity with it.
And Guardiola, who led City to a record-breaking 100-point haul last season, has tipped Stones to potentially play as a midfielder more regularly in the future.
“John made an excellent World Cup and showed again his personality,” Guardiola said, according to FourFourTwo.
“I was happy to see him in the last 10 or 15 minutes like a holding midfielder. John maybe can play there. We will see what’s going on in the future. In the Premier League there are a huge amount of games and everybody will be involved.”
“John has to know he has to play at a good level because Vincent and Nico [Nicolas Otamendi] are there, and they are going to play. Then, they have to play good.
“In the higher teams in the top tier, when they play in all competitions, you need this kind of competition.”
City had been chasing Italian midfielder Jorginho before new Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri managed to lure the former Napoli star to Stamford Bridge.
As a result, Guardiola is theoretically one player short in midfield considering he had hoped to add Jorginho to his squad for the new season.
That might give Stones the opportunity to play more often than last term, after he made just 18 Premier League appearances for the champions.
Manchester City’s first match of the season is against Unai Emery’s Arsenal side this Sunday.