Mangala will come good
Eliaquim Mangala, the 24-year-old Frenchman, has been subjected to a lot of criticism since his arrival at the Etihad in the summer, rather like fellow centre back Martin Demichelis received for the majority of his first season in Manchester. Mangala was one of the five summer signings for Pellegrini with the French international joining City from Porto for over £30 million in mid-August, with rumours the fee could rise to over £40 million.
Mangala was born in a north-western suburb of Paris called Colombes. At the age of 5 he moved to the French-speaking city of Namur in Belgium. He played for many teams in his youth career and signed his first professional contact at ten-time winners of the Belgian league Standard Liège at the age of 17. Eliaquim spent three years at Standard making nearly 80 appearances in that time before joining Portuguese superstars Porto for around £11 million in 2011. He again spent three years at Porto before making his summer switch to the champions of England.
Mangala made his debut for the Blues in a top-of-the-table clash with current leaders Chelsea in a 1-1 draw at the Etihad. His performance, to say the least, was brilliant. He graced the pitch with such elegance and kept hold of the ball with so much confidence that everyone in that ground that day thought Pellegrini had found himself a gem of a player; I’m afraid it went downhill from there.
A week later Mangala again paired skipper Kompany in the centre of the defence against Hull City and in truth looked like a totally different player. You would have been fair to question if this was actually the same player to whom we had witnessed just a week before. He scored an own goal and gave away a penalty therefore playing a huge part in both of Hull’s goals. This performance didn’t come at a cost as City still came out on top with a 4-2 win thanks to goals from Aguero, Dzeko, and Lampard, but the signs weren’t good.
So why exactly has Mangala been getting criticism from pundits and fans alike?
Even though earlier on I did credit Mangala on how comfortable he is on the ball, at times he is too comfortable. He regularly loses the ball and makes heavy touches which usually result in conceding free kicks. In recent games his performances could simply be summed up as clumsy. Mangala seems to be dragged out of position which leaves a gaping gap in the centre of the Blues’ defence. Although many fans have argued that the cause of Mangala being dragged out of position is the man who usually plays next to him on the left side of defence, Kolarov. Due to the Serbian’s attacking mind and average defending it means someone has to do a share of Kolarov’s workload, therefore Mangala is being dragged out to try and do this.
Mangala is the second most expensive defender in the world, behind PSG centre back David Luiz. So is the huge price tag weighing the young Frenchman down?
He believes not, with Mangala saying “I’m lucky enough to be living my passion, and I want to improve above anything else. My transfer fee doesn’t particularly bother me.”
To be fair to him, in recent games his performances have improved. He provided a solid performance in City’s last game, the 4-1 win away at Stoke.
I believe that Mangala will come good, as my title for this article suggests. His pace is frightening really, especially for a defender. We must not forget that he is still young. I’ll admit I for one was one of many fans that believed we would receive a readymade, world class defender for the rumoured £40m fee. But just imagine once Mangala has matured as a player, and got used to the Premier League – a centre-back pairing of Kompany and Mangala will be a force to be reckoned with.
