Uruguayan icon Sebastian Abreu has spoken of playing with Manchester City's coaching team of Pep Guardiola and Juan Manuel Lillo.

Abreu was teammates with Guardiola at Dorados de Sinaloa, where Lillo was head coach.

He recalled, "When I got to Dorados, Pep and Lillo began to tell me that I was wasting seconds. They inflated my b***s with that, and I, who am capricious, reluctant, stubborn, and also, I scored goals, I thought ... 'these two screw me saying that I'm losing seconds'. Until at one point I took off that helmet, that of being a person who did not understand who was talking to me, of seeing that they had a path, a much better and greater learning, and I began to listen to them.

"I began to understand that there was a lot of coherence in what they told me, in giving continuity to the game, the positioning, the profiles, the oriented control, admitting that I was going to grow much more as a striker, and as a footballer.

"That the play was going to have a greater chance of completion for me, the team, and that's where we started."