Manchester City skipper Vincent Kompany is still sidelined with a calf injury, but now manager Manuel Pellegrini hints he may return sooner than expected.
Well that didn’t take long. If there was ink on the internet, it would hardly have been dry on an article we wrote yesterday that made mention to fitness being the key to Manchester City’s success going forward. Specifically, Vincent Kompany’s fitness. The captain has been a long suffering victim of a calf injury, with accompanying (pardon the pun) false starts, that has seen him start a mere 9 games in the Premier League this year.
We discussed there that Manuel Pellegrini has run us round the Mulberry Bush on potential return dates. No earlier than a month, he assured us. Could even be two, he warned elsewhere. Will we see Kompany in a sky blue shirt this season, we wondered? Yes, and perhaps even sooner than previously expected. The latest revision coming via Sky Sports where, contrary to just about every interview he’s given on the topic even within the last day, Pellegrini states that Kompany should be back within a fortnight, or even perhaps sooner!
"“We said in the last press conference that it will be a couple of weeks and we need to wait and see how he improves but he could be back before.”"
Ignore for a second that the Independent and others are still reporting, today even, that it’s going to be a month or more. This is pretty big news and enough of a major turnaround for me to wonder if Pellegrini was talking about Kompany and not, say Eliaquim Mangala or someone. Heaven forbid.
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Either which way it would be a significant boost for a Manchester City struggling to put it all together at the back. One doesn’t need to go terribly far back to see points lost due to defensive errors, try three days ago against West Ham United. This is far from an isolated incident either, City’s record at the back before Kompany went out and after are as different as night and day.
Let’s take a look at some of the stats. In 10 games, in all competitions, with Kompany this season, Manchester City managed an impressive 7 clean sheets, or a 70% flawless record. In 21 games without him, they’ve managed only 2, or 9%. It gets worse. With Kompany in charge at the back, City conceded an average 0.4 goals per game this year. Without him, try 1.4 goals per game. A whole extra goal every single game on average because of one single defender. Ladies and gentlemen, Vincent Kompany.
Citizens perhaps became so used to his dominance at the back that’s it only now that he’s gone that it’s fully absorbed how much he is missed. Clearly throwing money at the problem has done nothing to help. The Sky Blues coughed up over £40 million to Mangala who is about as much use as a trap door in a canoe. Other defenders have either struggled or underwhelmed, but never really made an impression. It’s obvious to everybody, neutral observer and fan alike that Manchester City’s biggest problem is at the back, but with Kompany sidelined there doesn’t seem to be any quick fix.
While the news that he may be back sooner than expected is welcomed, it should be done so cautiously. One should remember that only on Boxing Day last did Kompany try and make a comeback only to come back off the park after a mere 9 minutes. Clearly City need him, but rushing him back when he’s not fully healed will actually only set things back further. That’s not to suggest Pellegrini making the same mistake again, obviously he has access to medical data not available to the public, but the shifting guesstimates for Kompany’s return do give pause for thought.
Either which way, assuming he’ll only be back when fully recovered this time, the earlier the better for Manchester City. They need that extra push that the skipper’s presence alone provides, let alone the strength he brings to the back four. As things stand, City are still very much in everything, Premier League title race included, and if they want to move ahead of a tight top four they will need to rediscover that dominance they haven’t had since Kompany’s injuries changed the dynamic.
Next: Manchester City - Fitness Needed to Win the League
It remains to be seen whether it’ll be two weeks, four weeks or more weeks until Vincent Kompany is in a sky blue shirt again. Let’s just hope that, at least this time, Pellegrini has got it right.