Manchester City, 6/1 with Coral to win the Premier League title,
dropped captain Vincent Kompany for their 2-0 victory over Leicester,
following a series of errors from the 28-year-old which arguably cost
them favourable results against Liverpool and Barcelona.
Coach Manuel Pellegrini summed up the situation: “We will work Thursday and Friday then after the weekend we will start preparing for the next game.
“It was not a difficult decision [to drop Kompany] because we needed to refresh the team and I decided, thinking about a lot of things. We will see what happens in the next game. We have the weekend free but on Monday we will start thinking about the next game.
“Always when you don’t have the result you need, the next game is very difficult and that is why today the most important thing was to win the three points. After that we played a normal game, we dominated, had good possession of the ball and it was important for the team to keep a clean sheet and try to dominate the game from the beginning.”
Having been a key component in City’s two Premier League title wins in 2011/12 and 2013/14, Kompany is likely to be given as much assistance to get himself back to full potential as possible. On his day, the Belgian is among the best in his position in the world, though even top players are entitled to bad patch.
Eliaquim Mangala, City’s big money summer signing from Porto, and faithful Pellegrini retainer Martin Demichelis started at the back against the Foxes, and prevented them from sniffing out any opportunities, keeping a clean sheet in the process.
There was no hint as to whether Kompany would return for the next game against Burnley at Turf Moor on March 14, though Pellegrini’s aim of freshening up the side certainly worked.
Following their Clarets clash, City travel to Barcelona for the second leg of their Champions League last 16 game against the Catalan kings, with Pellegrini’s men 14/1 to make it to the quarter-final stage at the very least, though must hope they can first overturn a 2-1 deficit.
Coach Manuel Pellegrini summed up the situation: “We will work Thursday and Friday then after the weekend we will start preparing for the next game.
“It was not a difficult decision [to drop Kompany] because we needed to refresh the team and I decided, thinking about a lot of things. We will see what happens in the next game. We have the weekend free but on Monday we will start thinking about the next game.
“Always when you don’t have the result you need, the next game is very difficult and that is why today the most important thing was to win the three points. After that we played a normal game, we dominated, had good possession of the ball and it was important for the team to keep a clean sheet and try to dominate the game from the beginning.”
Having been a key component in City’s two Premier League title wins in 2011/12 and 2013/14, Kompany is likely to be given as much assistance to get himself back to full potential as possible. On his day, the Belgian is among the best in his position in the world, though even top players are entitled to bad patch.
Eliaquim Mangala, City’s big money summer signing from Porto, and faithful Pellegrini retainer Martin Demichelis started at the back against the Foxes, and prevented them from sniffing out any opportunities, keeping a clean sheet in the process.
There was no hint as to whether Kompany would return for the next game against Burnley at Turf Moor on March 14, though Pellegrini’s aim of freshening up the side certainly worked.
Following their Clarets clash, City travel to Barcelona for the second leg of their Champions League last 16 game against the Catalan kings, with Pellegrini’s men 14/1 to make it to the quarter-final stage at the very least, though must hope they can first overturn a 2-1 deficit.
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