Kevin De Bruyne has hailed David Silva as an "amazing" talent for Manchester City, and says the Premier League leaders need the playmaker back from injury along with Sergio Aguero and Samir Nasri "as soon as possible."
Silva, 29, has only played two games alongside De Bruyne since the Belgian's £54 million summer arrival from Wolfsburg, with the Spain international missing City's last seven matches with an ankle injury.
Manuel Pellegrini's side are top of the table on goal difference despite having a number of key forwards out of action, but struggled as they were held to a goalless draw at Aston Villa last Sunday.
De Bruyne says the City squad will be even more dangerous once the likes of Silva, Aguero and Nasri are fit again, telling City's official website: "On the ball [Silva] is amazing.
"He can do everything and dictate the tempo of a game from start to finish, so he's a great player to have when you want to control of the game -- I'd say that's one of his best traits.
"He has great vision, can find anyone with a pass and it is great to have him as a teammate. Obviously we are all looking forward to his, Sergio and Samir's return as soon as possible."
De Bruyne has made a fine start to life in England having scored three Premier League goals and set up another four, following on from setting up 21 Bundesliga goals last term to land the Germany Player of the Year award.
The 24-year-old playmaker attributes his success to being able to spot his teammates' runs from deep, adding: "It's an advantage, obviously and one of my main strengths is to create opportunities for my teammates.
"Last year it went really well at Wolfsburg and I'm trying to repeat that here -- it's not as though I'm always searching for the final ball -- I just do the things I feel are good for the team and when the positive statistics come back it's obviously nice for me.
"So long as the teams wins, though, that's all that really matters."