IT IS perhaps understandable why Manuel Pellegrini refuses to accept the obvious - that Manchester City are far more vulnerable without Vincent Kompany than with him.
Pellegrini does not want to undermine his three other centre halves, Nicolas Otamendi, Eliaquim Mangala and Martin Demichelis, who he signed for a combined £72million.
Neither does he want to give opponents encouragement and create a collective paranoia among his own players that they can't operate without defensive kingpin Kompnay.
Back in the 1980s, Ron Atkinson, then in charge of Manchester United, and England boss Bobby Robson used to lament the frequent injury-enforced absences of Bryan Robson to such extent you sensed their teams developed a mental block about winning when 'Captain Marvel' was missing.
But whatever Pellegrini's 'head-in-the-sand' psychology, the statistics are compelling.
City have conceded only three goals in the 11 games that Kompany has been involved in - and kept seven clean sheets.
But in the 12 games they have played without him, they have conceded 22 and have not shut out the opposition once.
Kompany's persistent and worrying calf problem will force him to be a frustrated spectator again tonight (Tues) when City take on in-form Borussia Monchengladbach at the Etihad Stadium. To compound their problems they will be without Sergio Aguero again.
Already qualified, City not only need to win to finish top and secure a potentially 'easier' draw in the last 16, they also need leaders Juventus to lose in Seville.
But without Kompany it is difficult to see them keeping out a team who beat Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich 3-1 at the weekend and have only lost once - to City - in the 14 games since Andre Schubert took over as manager in September.
Pellegrini came up with some stats of his own to counter the arguments that City are heavily reliant on Kompany.
"I don't agree that we can't defend without Vincent," he said. "Last season for instance, we won the last six games and kept four clean sheets without him.
"In the last two seasons we've played a lot of games without important players like Vincent and Sergio and still won them. It depends on the performance of individual players, it depends on a lot of things.
"I analyse the performance of the individual players, not you. We must make a balanced view of the whole season."
Worryingly, there is still no definite comeback date set for Kompany with Pellegrini adding: "Vincent is improving. He is doing some tests with his calf. We will see in the next days how he improves."
With Martin Demichelis ruled out by a tendon injury, it means a recall for Mangala for the first time since his horror show in the 4-1 home defeat by Liverpool.
The France international will partner Otamendi with Pellegrini demanding an improvement in all departments, not just defence, after City were ripped apart by Stoke on Saturday who could have trebled their 2-0 winning margin.
City are a team who do not appear to be able to grind out wins when they are playing badly, indicated by a record of six defeats already, four in the Premier League and two in the Champions League.
But Pellegrini refuses to change his attacking philosophy and take a more pragmatic approach in a bid to find some consistency in their performances and results.
"I will not change the way this team plays because we are the most successful team so far this season ," he said. "We are the only team still involved in all four competitions and we qualified for the knockout stages of the Champions League with two games to spare.
"We are always the highest scoring team since I have been here so we will never play with eight of nine players defending our penalty area. We must not change our style but we must cut out the [defensive] mistakes. We must be concerned about how we defended and how we attacked at Stoke. We are not a consistent team in some games."
The good news for City is that Yaya Toure is back, while Gael Clichy and Fabian Delph are set to replace Aleksandar Kolarov and the injured Fernando.
But even if they get it right tonight, it might all be in vain if Juventus maintain their unbeaten grup record in southern Spain.
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