MANUEL PELLEGRINI believes Manchester City are learning to cope without Vincent Kompany at the heart of their defence despite an inability to keep a clean sheet in his absence.
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| Vincent Kompany only lasted nine minutes in his return for Manchester City against Sunderland |
The City captain's latest planned comeback, after seven weeks out, lasted just over nine minutes against Sunderland on Saturday before he suffered a recurrence of the same calf injury.
Yet the City boss insists he is seeing definite signs of improvement in his replacements despite them allowing a poor Sunderland side breach defences again.
"This team is better with Vincent than without him but we cannot think that all the mistakes are because Vincent is not playing," said Pellegrini.
"He is very important but it doesn't mean that without Vincent we have to think that we're not going to make any mistakes or without him we cannot win."
Before Saturday's cameo appearance City had failed to keep a clean sheet in any of the 16 matches in which the Belgian has not played in all competitions this season.
However, in Pellegrini's eyes, the replacement combinations of Nicolas Otamendi, Eliaquim Mangala and Martin Demichelis are showing signs of improvement.
"It's an important challenge for the other players," he said. "At the moment maybe we're conceding some goals in two or three games - Tottenham, Liverpool and Stoke - but Arsenal didn't shoot too much before they scored the first goal.
"We are improving. I hope we will play like we finished last season without Vincent, keeping four or five clean sheets and winning.
"If you review how many games we played over the last two seasons I've had, I think Vincent plays a maximum 70 per cent of the season. And we won titles, and the last six games [last season] without him."
City face a packed five-week period starting with a visit to Premier League leaders Leicester on Tuesday and containing semi-final matches against Everton in the Capital One Cup as well as two rounds of the FA Cup.
Sergio Aguero, who was on the bench here and stayed there, will be fit to start the match at the King Power. But it is the knockout stages of the Champions League - City play Dynamo Kiev in the last 16 on February 24 and March 15 - that will be circled on his desk diary with Kompany's recovery in mind.
City's medical staff will be left scratching their heads after his latest setback given he trained perfectly all week.
"We are trying to find the reasons why he has so many injuries in his calf but we will do all the tests we need to to try to understand why," said Pellegrini.
The defender himself insisted his body feels "invincible" but is "challenged by a number of small and local injuries".
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| A disconsolate Kompany is replaced my Martin Demichelis |
It is a worrying recurrence for both player, club and country with Belgium going into the European Championships this summer as the No 1 ranked team in the world.
Club and country team-mate Kevin de Bruyne conceded he will be a big miss on both domestic and international stages. "Hopefully it is not too bad but mentally it will be very hard for him," said De Bruyne. "I have known him for seven or eight years in the national team and he is a big character and one of the leaders of this team so it helps when he is fit.
"We need to cope without him but it would be nice to be on top when he comes back."
City were barely out of second gear against Sunderland, hitting Sam Allardyce's struggling outfit with three quick goals inside nine minutes in the first half, Raheem Sterling, Yaya Toure and Wilfried Bony the goalscorers to put the game to bed.
The excellent De Bruyne added a fourth early in the second half and Fabio Borini squeezed one in from a tight angle to make it 4-1.
In truth it could have been more embarrassing for Sunderland for all that Danny Graham and Steven Fletcher should have scored. Bony fired a penalty over the bar after David Silva was felled and squandered at least two more chances.
Pellegrini was accurate when suggesting they could have had eight.
MAN CITY (4-2-3-1): Hart 6; Sagna 5, Mangala 6, Otamendi 6 (Kompany 61; Demichelis 71, 6), Kolarov 6; Toure 6 (Delph 62, 6), Fernandinho 6; De Bruyne 8, Silva 8, Sterling 6; Bony 5. Booked: Sterling. Goals: Sterling 12, Toure 17, Bony 22, De Bruyne 54. NEXT UP: Leicester (a) PL, Tuesday.
SUNDERLAND (4-2-3-1): Mannone 4; Jones 4, Coates 4, O'Shea 4, van Aanholt 4; M'Vila 4 (Cattermole 56, 6), Gomez 5, Graham 4 (Watmore 71), Johnson 4, Borini 5; Fletcher 4 (Lens 62, 6). Booked: Jones. Goal: Borini 59. NEXT UP: Liverpool (h) PL, Wednesday.
Referee: A Taylor (Cheshire)
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