Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini thinks the blues don’t struggle without their captain Vincent Kompany.
After Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at the hands of Stoke City, City boss Pellegrini rubbished claims that the Citizens struggled without the Belgian defender.
Having been ruled out of Tuesday’s European clash against Borussia Mönchengladbach with a recurring calf injury, City will be forced to play summer acquisition Nicolas Otamendi alongside the much-maligned Eliaquim Mangala. The partnership isn’t one that has filled City fans with confidence but with Demichelis in poor form, the two-time Premier League champions have no choice but to start with the duo.
The 7 league games the Manchester side haven’t played with Kompany has seen them win three, lose four and concede 15 goals – taking a mere 9 points from a possible 21, not the greatest of records for a side battling for a domestic title.
The top-flight games which the centre-half has featured in this season, however, has seen City an invariably better defensive outfit: playing eight, winning six and conceding only a single goal. The record speaks for itself and doesn’t bode well in terms of the blues’ reliance on their captain featuring for the points to be secured.
“Last season we finished the last six games without Vincent Kompany,” the Guardian quotes the Chilean manger as saying. “We won the six and had four clean sheets. It depends on the performance of individual players, it depends on a lot of things. In the last two years we played a lot of games without important players.” Pellegrini said.
City host Möchengladbach at the Etihad tomorrow evening in the hope of topping the group, depending on how Juventus fare in Seville. They lie third in the Premier League and play Garry Monk’s Swansea at home next Saturday.
