Vincent Kompany is facing a race against time to play a part in Manchester City’s remaining Christmas fixtures and help sort out an increasingly vulnerable defence.
The captain's absence has become increasingly damaging to manager Manuel Pellegrini’s hopes of regaining the Premier League title.
Kompany, who has missed his side’s last eight matches with a calf problem, is scheduled to return to full training this week, but Pellegrini is uncertain as to whether he will be ready for the Boxing Day home match against Sunderland.
Kompany has been on the sidelines for more than six weeks
Pellegrini is wary of rushing back the Belgium centre-back, who has suffered two significant injury setbacks this season, and has made only three league appearances in the last three months.
The defender watched from the stand at the Emirates on Monday as City suffered a 2-1 league defeat at Arsenal, a result that has left them in third place, six points adrift of leaders Leicester City.
His commanding influence on Pellegrini’s defence is clear; City have conceded just one goal in the seven league matches in which their captain has played this season, while letting in 18 in the 10 he has missed.
Nicolás Otamendi and Eliaquim Mangala have been the regular defensive partnership in Kompany’s absence, but have rarely looked solid, with Arsenal creating a number of chances on Monday.
If Kompany is not fit to face Sunderland, Pellegrini will be keen to ensure that he is ready for the trip to leaders Leicester three days later.
Bacary Sagan says ' we miss our captain, of course'
Bacary Sagna, the City full-back, has acknowledged that the defence has struggled without Kompany’s influence.
Sagna said: “We know Vincent is a quality defender. He is our captain and we miss him of course. But I think we have the quality, we have the players to give their best to replace him and to bring the team up.”
“We can’t be happy, we can’t be pleased with what happened against Arsenal. We can say we played well but we lost. I think we have to learn, because before they scored, we could have scored, and it would have been different.
“We are still involved in all competitions. But I think we had a bad moment, when we conceded too many goals.”
Manchester City striker Wilfried Bony has indicated that he believes he should have started ahead of Sergio Agüero against Arsenal on Monday night.
It's clear Pellegrini will not pick Bony ahead of or to play alongside Aguero
Bony was dropped to the bench to make way for the Argentina international, who was making a comeback after three weeks out with a heel injury.
However, Agüero did not look fully fit and was replaced by the Ivory Coast forward after an hour.
Bony, who scored three goals in four matches while playing as a lone forward in Agüero’s absence, stopped short of criticising manager Manuel Pellegrini’s decision, but made clear he was not happy.
He said: “I’m disappointed that I didn’t start. I’m not the coach. The coach does what he thinks is best for the team.
Bony scores against Swansea
“I’m sure everyone on the bench wants to play. He just has to choose 11 players. So when I come on I just try to do my best to try to score, or to give an assist to other players to score, to help the team to win.”
Asked if he felt he deserved to be playing, Bony responded: “I think so. He [Agüero] is coming back from injury. He hasn’t played for a couple of weeks.”
Pellegrini’s selection suggested that Bony has little chance of being a regular starter when Agüero is fit. The City manager will give an update on the Argentinian’s fitness on Wednesday.
0 nhận xét:
Đăng nhận xét