DID LOSING VINCENT KOMPANY DISMANTLE MANCHESTER CITY’S TITLE BID?

Manchester City haven’t enjoyed the best of season’s despite an impressive Champions League run to the semifinals. They are clinging onto fourth spot in the Premier League with one game to go as Dan McClue looks at one reason why it may have gone wrong for them this year.

Manchester City were many people’s pick to win the Premier League this season, and if not they were expected to push for the title all the way.

Currently, they sit fourth with one game to go and their Champions League spot is under serious threat from the rivals in red, Manchester United.

Should they fall out of the top four it would be a disastrous way to end what is has been an underrated reign from Manuel Pellegrini and would also give new boss Pep Guardiola a troubled start to his City career.

But where has it gone wrong this season? For me, the consistent injuries to club captain Vincent Kompany have cost them more than anything else.

The Belgian international joined the Sky Blues in 2008 from Hamburg and has since become their captain and played in 298 matches, scoring 14 goals from defence.

This season Kompany has started 22 games overall (14 in the Premier League) and has been forced off before the 10th minute in four of those matches due to injuries. In a 38-game league season, City needed their best defender and leader to start more than 25 games to be in with a shout of challenging for the title.

The Citizens are blessed with formidable attacking talent as Sergio Aguero is the best striker in the league and Kevin De Bruyne is on the way to becoming one of the world’s top playmakers despite also struggling with injuries this season.

However, without Kompany their defence has looked untrustworthy and vulnerable. Nicolas Otamendi and Eliaquim Mangala when paired together have arguably only had one top quality match – the second-leg Champions League tie against PSG. Martin Demichelis has never looked like a stable option for the club but all three centre-backs look twice as good when paired with Kompany.

A good example of the captain’s importance is when we look at the club’s two title-winning seasons. In 2011/12 he played 42 games overall, 31 being in the league. In 2013/14 when they won their second Premier League title he played in 37 games overall (scoring five goals) with 28 league appearances. They finished second in the season between their triumphs – the same position as last year but won’t be in the top two come the end of this campaign.

In the 2012/13 season Kompany played in 26 league games and last season he played 25 games in the top flight. This shows that while there may not be much of a difference on paper between playing 25 games and playing 28 games, if the league is won by 3-6 points those games that Kompany missed would certainly have made City more competitive had they had their captain.

It is of obvious importance for a title challenging team to have a solid defence with a leader on the pitch. Manchester United had Nemanja Vidic in the 2010/11 and 2012/13 seasons and he was also helped by Rio Ferdinand. City had Kompany in the 2011/12 and 2013/14 seasons and Chelsea had John Terry in 2014/15. All those centre-backs were not only formidable defenders but their respective club captains.

The championship winning teams would certainly have shaped up differently had they been without these players for 10+ games. These players organise the defence on the field and have the authority to command respect from the rest of their team, which is why without Kompany players like Otamendi and Mangala look lost without their leader.

The question for City now is where do they go from here? Both with Kompany and the rest of the team. The captain is 30 years old. For most top defenders they should be able to play until about 33 before struggling to maintain at the top level. That would give Kompany at least three more seasons, but his injury record makes it difficult to predict his future.

According to transfermarkt.co.uk, Kompany is currently valued at £22.5 million. City could look to cash in on their top defender if they feel the injuries he keeps picking up will sustain and they would be able to get more than that valuation from a team desperate for a top quality centre back in Europe. He now looks set to miss the next four months and will subsequently miss the start of Guardiola’s reign.

The club would definitely receive a backlash from the fans if they sold him, as despite the injury problems he is their club captain for a reason. Over the past two seasons they have spent over £50 million combined on Otamendi and Mangala to give cover for Kompany and to have a competent player alongside him at centre back. Despite City’s apparent endless riches it is not sensible for them to be splashing out on defenders every year trying to find a strong enough centre back pairing to consistently win them the league.

While I couldn’t see City selling Kompany in the next two or three years it should be something they consider, as cashing in on the aging star with recurring injury problems might help them to move on as far as their defensive worries are concerned.

One thing for sure is that Pep Guardiola will certainly have some important decisions to make when he arrives in the summer.

Manchester City’s Vincent Kompany expected to miss start of new season

Vincent Kompany’s thigh injury is expected to keep him out for four months meaning Manchester City’s captain will miss the start of next season under the club’s new coach, Pep Guardiola.

However Lieven Maesschalck, the Belgium team doctor, claims the 30-year-old could still play on for five more years if he recovers fully.

Kompany suffered the problem in the opening minutes of City’s 1-0 defeat to Real Madrid at the Bernabéu last Wednesday. The central defender is ruled out of Belgium’s Euro 2016 campaign, which starts in June, and now is set to be unavailable for Guardiola when the 2016-17 season starts.

While the Spaniard replaces Manuel Pellegrini on 1 July, Kompany faces a long summer of rehabilitation from what is a 33rd injury of his eight years at the club.

His troubled history and the length he will be out may threaten his long-term future at the club.

According to Maesschalck, Kompany may not return until the end of August. “I’ve seen Kompany [last] Thursday. It was very clear: he has a complete tear of the slender thigh muscle,” he told the country’s Radio 1. “It will take about four months to get match fit again. How bad it is, Vincent must now look forward to next season. It was inevitable, he had no choice. The decision is final.

“Kompany was obviously very disappointed. For him, everything [is] Belgium. He wanted to do everything to be there at the European Championships. The body of Kompany is under enormous pressure, the time pressure is always there and he is very demanding of himself. On the other hand, it is phenomenal how he deals with the disillusionment. He draws all courage for the next chapter. I’m sure he’ll be back. Now he has the opportunity to rest and recover his body well.”

Maesschalck is clear Kompany can still look forward to many more years playing at the highest level. “I’m 100% sure he can handle it effectively,” he said. “Kompany sets himself always in a positive way. It is a privilege to work with such a personality. Vincent has been playing 16 years at the top level. [Marc] Wilmots [national coach] has also often been injured and always returned to the highest level.

“In the NBA, I have seen the same thing many times. This does not mean the end of the career of Kompany. He needs only one match to get back at the top level. A winner if he can handle it. And he still can compete at the highest level for at least five years.”

Martino tries with Demichelis and Pinola

Argentina coach prepares for Bolivia clash with two new central defenders

After the 2-1 away victory over Chile on Thursday, Argentina coach Gerardo Martino tried with Martín Demichelis and Javier Pinola as central defenders in yesterday’s practice session for Tuesday’s match against Bolivia at the Mario Alberto Kempes stadium in Córdoba in the sixth round of the World Cup South American qualifiers.

The new defenders pair seem to be the coach’s choice to replace Nicolás Otamendi and Ramiro Funes Mori, who played against Chile and both have a one-match ban.

The 35-year-old Demichelis plays for Manchester City. Although he is usually benched, he has been playing a lot for the English team in the last weeks due to Vincent Kompany’s injuries.

The former River Plate and Bayern Munich defender won more support from fans after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where he received a last-minute call by coach Alejandro Sabella to join the Argentine squad and earned a place in the first team during the tournament. Tuesday’s match could be one of his last with the national team.

Pinola was called up by Martino to be part of the team for the second time in his career. The 33-year-old defender played one match with the Albiceleste in 2007, with Alfio Basile as coach.

The former Racing Club and Germany’s Nürnberg player Pinola joined Rosario Central last year and won the attention of Martino due to his fantastic form with Eduardo Coudet’s team. Central battled for the 2015 First Division tournament until the end, reached the Copa Argentina final last year and is now competing for both the Transitional championship and Libertadores Cup, and Pinola is one of the main reasons for those campaigns.

Martino will leave Mateo Mussachio on the bench, as the Villarreal defender has just recovered from an injury.

Apart from Otamendi and Funes Mori, Ezequiel Lavezzi cannot be part of the team either, as he also has a one-game ban.

In yesterday’s practice session, the coach made another change: Javier Mascherano took Matías Kranevitter’s place as defensive midfielder.

Martino fielded: Sergio Romero; Gabriel Mercado, Demichelis, Pinola, Marcos Rojo; Lucas Biglia, Mascherano, Éver Banega; Lionel Messi, Sergio Agüero and Ángel Di María.

Meanwhile, Bolivia coach Julio César Baldivieso said yesterday that he is thinking about using a man-to-man defence for Messi in Córdoba.

“We’re thinking about using a man-to-man defence for Messi, but he is not the only one who can make the difference. It’s complicated to face Argentina, a team full of soccer stars,” said Baldivieso in Radio Mitre.

The Bolivian side returned to training sessions yesterday after losing 3-2 at home to Colombia on Thursday and the coach is planning to make many changes due to suspensions and injuries.

“Argentina did not play well against Chile, but in soccer you win with goals, and we did not deserve to lose against Colombia,” he said.

Bolivia will have to make at least three changes. Defenders Edward Zenteno and Leonel Morales will miss the match due to a one-game suspension and an injury, respectively. Midfielder Damián Lizio left the squad for personal issues.

Baldivieso’s job is already in jeopardy due to his tense relation with the federation officials, one of them Walter Torrico, due to the poor results in the qualifiers.

The coach said after his defeat on Thursday that these could be his “last days in charge of the team.” A hard defeat against Argentina could mean the end of his stint as Bolivia coach.

Martino’s men have eight points after five games, while Bolivia has only three.

Otamendi admits Manchester City miss Kompany

Manchester City defender Nicolas Otamendi believes it is only logical they are struggling defensively without Vincent Kompany.

Nicolas Otamendi hopes to be playing alongside Vincent Kompany again "as quickly as possible", conceding that Manchester City are not the same side without their captain in the team.

The Belgium international has been limited to nine starts in all competitions this season by a calf injury, although City have conceded a mere three goals and kept seven clean sheets in those games.

A 4-1 thrashing at home to Liverpool, as well as defeats at Stoke City and Arsenal have been suffered in Kompany's absence.

Otamendi feels it is only logical Kompany is being missed and believes any team in the world would struggle without a player of the Belgian's calibre.

"We have all been subjected to some criticism at some point this season, but any team would miss Vinny. He is a top player, he is aggressive on the pitch and he has been a big loss for us," Otamendi told The Independent.

"We hope to get him back as quickly as possible and that anyone the manager puts in to replace him can stay solid during that time. The games I played together with Vinny, I really enjoyed the partnership, both in the derby against Manchester United and in the Champions League against Sevilla. 

"I felt we were developing something there. He is obviously a top player and he helps us a great deal when he is on the pitch."

Otamendi has been playing alongside former Porto team-mate Eliaquim Mangala in Kompany's absence and he feels the Frenchman has plenty to offer, too.

"Recently, I have been playing with Mangala and he is a top player too," he added.

"He is young, but he is developing as a professional and also as a personality, I can see that on the pitch.

"He was different when I played with him at Porto. He was a lot more aggressive on the pitch, but I think he has developed since then and is a good fit for the Premier League."

Football Manager 2016: 14 English Wonderkids You Have To Sign

Media Handling: 100%. Loyalty To Players: 100%. Financial Control: 100%. Domestic Player Bias: 1%.

Ever since your life was greatly enhanced by Football Manager’s presence, you’ll have grappled with hotbeds of football. They could be continents, regions, or specific nations that yielded immense crops of players year-in year-out. We were all baffled around the 2008 mark when Belgium suddenly turned into the place to be, with Anthony Vanden Borre, Olivier Deschacht, and a young Vincent Kompany rising up from obscurity to become absolute world-beaters.

In recent years, Argentina has spawned some unbelievable talents for pennies, and pretty much everyone will have their own preference for where to go for their shopping. However, it’s very rare that anyone looks in their own back garden to secure the hottest young world talents without even leaving England.

In the real world, it’s common knowledge that a young English starlet will command a far higher fee than counterparts around the world, and this is mirrored in-game. Why would anyone splash £10 million and inflated wages on a young central midfielder when they can be acquired elsewhere for less than half of that?

But while you may be tempted to scout the Peruvian top flight to unearth hidden gems, load up Football Manager 2016 and feast your eyes on these homegrown talents who will all be getting to know each other soon enough in the virtual England squad of the future.

Manchester City benefit after Manuel Pellegrini finally shows he can be flexible

The revelation of the 3-1 lesson Manchester City handed Sevilla at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán was Manuel Pellegrini’s willingness, at last, to adjust formation and approach.

Raheem Sterling sparkles as Manchester City beat Sevilla to reach last 16

 

Read more

“We only play one way” has been the mantra of the manager since he took over in the summer of 2013. In domestic football the Pellegrini way allowed City to prosper in his first season, as the Premier League and Capital One Cup were claimed.

There has been progress in the Champions League, too. The club reached the knockout stages for the first time in 2013-14 and repeated the feat last term. Yet Pellegrini’s continuing focus on attack first had laid him open to a charge of tactical inflexibility. The two consecutive last-16 defeats by Barcelona were no shame but those 4-1 and 3-1 aggregate reverses left a question hanging: “Might Lionel Messi and company have been stymied if Pellegrini had altered his ethos?”

Tuesday provided if not a definitive answer, then a signpost to a new route forward when City next come up against a continental beast that needs taming. Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United, whose struggle with flair continued during Tuesday night’s home win against CSKA Moscow, may study what City did to Sevilla and consider co-opting it for their respective Champions League campaigns.

On Monday Pellegrini was again asked if pragmatism might be adopted and again the reply came that winning was the aim. Given the Chilean’s front-foot first approach it seemed to confirm Sevilla would be tackled in familiar fashion.

But Pellegrini was plotting a shrewder gameplan, one that proved an irresistible blend. Victory remained the ambition yet City’s sweeping attack mode would have the ballast of a dense midfield manned by Fernandinho and Fernando at the base and Yaya Touré pushed slightly further forward.

What unfolded was a watershed performance derived from an element often absent when City take the field on big continental nights: balance. Sevilla had chances, as all teams do in club football’s blue riband tournament, but these were fleeting interruptions. City’s forward menace and muscular grip on midfield had Unai Emery’s men pinned throughout.

It was the second time this season that Pellegrini paired Fernandinho and Fernando as the fulcrum, with Touré advanced. The Chilean had done so in the goalless draw with Manchester United at Old Trafford. Against Sevilla it gave City control, with Fernandinho to the fore as he continued this term’s stellar form. The Brazilian was a whirr of tackles, interventions and surges upfield that ensured momentum was always with his side.

It was a total team display. All of the City XI impressed, with Raheem Sterling, Fernandinho and Wilfried Bony scoring and Joe Hart making a crucial save from Timothée Kolodziejczak when the score was 2-1.

By the end City had reached the last 16 again, with two Group D matches left, and Pellegrini acknowledged the change of tack. “I’m very happy with the way we played,” he said. “We defended well. I changed the system because I was not happy with the way we’re playing.”

Given the quasi-stubborn refusal to tinker with strategy and Pellegrini’s gnomic utterances, this may prove a road-to-Damascus moment for the Chilean and his City project. As he said of Fernando, Fernandinho and Touré: “I was very happy with the way the three midfielders play. We prepared the play to move into space and that was the reason we created so many chances.”

The fast and flowing style Pellegrini loves is one developed in South America and Spain at his nine previous clubs. Yet as a contented Vincent Kompany suggested, the display had a strong seam of old-fashioned English stability running through it.

“It was probably our best performance in Champions League so far,” the defender said. “If I can take one thing from this game the biggest thing is we weren’t naive, we were solid.”

This was all achieved without the injured Sergio Agüero and David Silva, and with Kevin De Bruyne a late substitute. The XI Pellegrini sent out against Emery’s team was: Hart, Bacary Sagna, Kompany, Nicolás Otamendi, Aleksandar Kolarov, Fernando, Fernandinho, Jesús Navas, Touré, Sterling and Bony.

If Fernando is now a first choice in a high-stake game, Navas can be dropped for Silva and Bony for Agüero, but working out where to fit De Bruyne, who has been impressive since joining in the summer, is a nice problem for Pellegrini.

Harry Redknapp, who took Tottenham Hotspur to the Champions League quarter-finals, said: “It was a fantastic performance. They opened up Seville so far many times. They could have scored six. It was one of the best away performances I’ve seen in Europe by an English side in many years.”

Kompany is also clear. “We have to adapt our style but played in a British way. You hear that English football is bad but we brought the best of British.”

These words will be seized upon by those with a love of the Premier League. One scintillating victory against Sevilla does not mean City will waltz on to the final, of course. But Pellegrini now has a blueprint for when Barça, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or Paris Saint-Germain are in town.

And, United, Arsenal and Chelsea also have a new scheme to consider.

Manchester City flew the flag for English football with Champions League cruise says Vincent Kompany

Blues' qualification for the last 16 with two group games to spare "an incredible achievement. We brought the best of British tonight”.

Vincent Kompany claimed Manchester City showed Bulldog spirit to qualify for the last 16 of the Champions League, writes David Anderson in Seville .

City have made it with two group games still to play to restore some English pride in Europ's elite club competition, and Kompany hailed their devastating display in their 3-1 win over Sevilla here as the “best of British”.

“It’s a difficult group and so for us to qualify with two games spare is an incredible achievement,” said the City skipper.

“It was probably our best performance in the Champions League so far.

In pictures — Sevilla 1-3 Manchester City:

“If I can take one thing from this game, the biggest thing is we weren’t naive, we were solid. We have to adapt our style, but we played in a British way.

“You hear that English football is bad, but we brought the best of British tonight.”

Kompany also praised Joe Hart and the England No 1 atoned for his blunder against Norwich on Saturday by making a key save at 2-1.

“Harty is a phenomenal goalkeeper, we’re lucky to have him,” said the Belgium defender. “Our game plan was perfect.”

Delighted City boss Manuel Pellegrini has challenged his side to complete the job by finishing top of Group D to lessen their chances of a difficult draw in the knock-out stages.

Grrrrrreight! Raheem Sterling celebrates scoring the night's first goal early on

At the double: Fernandinho made it 2-0 with just 11 minutes gone

Game over: Wilfried Bony got City's third before halftime to halt a Sevilla fightback

“It is very important,” he said. “It is not the most important thing, but it is important. After that you need a good draw. I’m very happy because I think we played a very complete game.”

Pellegrini tweaked his midfield diamond to allow Fernandinho to attack with Yaya Toure to great effect

“I’m very happy because I was not happy with the way we were playing, so we needed a change,” he said. “Today we changed the system and for that reason, we played a very good game.”