Wednesday 2 December 2015 15:10, UK
Manuel Pellegrini says he is excited about seeing David Silva combining with Kevin De Bruyne in the Manchester City side in the coming weeks.
Silva captained the team in Tuesday night's 4-1 Capital One Cup quarter-final victory at home to Hull on his first start since October 3 after recovering from an ankle injury.
The midfielder played 82 minutes as goals from Wilfried Bony, Kelechi Iheanacho and two from De Bruyne were enough to see off the Championship side.
Due to injuries, Silva and De Bruyne have only played 75 minutes together in the Premier League and Pellegrini thinks the pair can forge a great understanding.
"Silva is very important for the team," Pellegrini said.
"He is a quality player. He gives us possession of the ball, which is a style of play that we like to play and he connects well with De Bruyne, and our other technical players. We've had so many injures that it's important that our squad is strong."
The victory means City are still in every competition this season, including leading the way in the Premier League.
Pellegrini's men beat Southampton 3-1 on Saturday and the manager was pleased with how his squad coped with two games in 72 hours.
"I'm very pleased as we're in the semi-final and we played with just two and a half days rest," he said.
"It's important to be involved in all competitions. I think we were very solid and didn't allow any chances for Hull to score. Anything can happen at 1-0 but it was important for us not to concede any chances."
City travel to face Stoke in the Premier League on Saturday, before then playing host to Borussia Monchengladbach in their final Champions League Group D encounter.
Meanwhile, Hull manager Steve Bruce insists he has no regrets about his team selection at the Etihad.
Bruce left out seven of his first-choice line-up, including leading scorer Abel Hernandez, with one eye on Saturday's trip to Leeds.
"The same squad beat Leicester and beat Swansea so I have got to stay true to them if I am going to back my word up and say you are going to play in the cup if you don't play in the league," said Bruce.
"And we lost on Friday [at Derby]. Is it really going to make any difference when you come to Man City?
"If we needed a reminder how cruel it was to play against the big boys, we just had one.
"After 80 minutes, we just had our best spell of the match and after 87 minutes it was 4-0. It was never a 4-1.
"The one thing we needed to do in the second half was cause them a few more problems.
"Defensively, apart from the goal, I can't remember them creating a chance in the first half even though they had huge possession.
"We needed to stay in the cup tie. Up until 81 minutes, we were in there. Then they punished us."
