Manchester City: Worried about Mangala
Manchester City face PSG in the quarter finals of the Champions League tonight. But how will their defence come out?
Everyone prepares for a big game differently. I’ve known people (bosses, mostly) who take the day off work as a mental preparation. The rest of us go to work but spend most of it feverishly checking our portable internet devices for team news, from either side, or any small nugget of positivity which may cause the brain to release endorphins to mask the fear we feel.
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Fear is, after all, the one thing that unites us all in this situation. If you’re the underdog team, well, you’re afraid it’s all coming to an end tonight. If you’re the favourites, well, you’re afraid of an upset (which football is wont to provide). In the end, there’s little that can be done but prepare yourself for the worst and secretly hope for the best, as it all starts falling into place.
Tonight, it most likely hasn’t escaped your notice, is the quarter finals of the Champions League and, for the first time in club history, Manchester City will be a part of it. If that doesn’t make them automatically underdogs, and make us automatically afraid, then the fact they are playing their ideological seniors: Paris Saint-Germain. PSG are, it must be noted, laden with cash and superstar quality, like City on steroids, and are without question the favourites to progress here.
All the same, as we’ve discussed previously, they present a more beatable option than many of the other teams still around. It’s hard to argue that Manchester City can’t match PSG player-for-player in terms of talent. Aye, they have Zlatan Ibrahimovic, scorer of 38 goals this season (7 in his last 3 games alone) but as prolific as he is, he’s not any more a world class striker than Sergio Aguero. That’s all on paper of course, but the point remains.
One place City will find themselves struggling to keep up is, again, the back four. Oh have City struggled with defence this year. I have to restrain myself from penning a rant about it following every game. Not only are we missing our number 1 keeper Joe Hart (thanks to some self-destructive lunacy from Martin Demichelis), we are without our skipper and driving force Vincent Kompany. I don’t need to remind you how much worse we’ve been without Kompany, but at least, one could hope, Manuel Pellegrini would pick the most appropriate and Kompany-like choice to replace him for arguably our biggest game so far.
And we’d be wrong. Sadly it seems Pellegrini has elected to leave Ibrahimovic, scorer of many goals, in the hands of the hapless and bumbling £42 million liability Eliaquim Mangala. This represents quite the leap of faith on behalf of Pellegrini, given he has struggled against Hull City’s Abel Hernandez, never mind PSG’s Ibrahimovic.
Alongside him at full back will be Nicolas Otamendi who one could suggest has been in a similar boat, struggling to adjust to the English game. In his case though, he’s been steadily learning and improving. Certainly next to Mangala he appears to be the second coming of Kompany, though I dare say many would look good in the same situation.
Regardless, it’s potentially trouble for City, but it seems that Pellegrini really has no other option here. Kompany’s done for the season, Demichelis has been led out to pasture, Fernando/Fernandinho can cover but will want to maintain a more forward looking presence overall. And that’s the rub, in this first leg City will be aiming to go all out for away goals, even if they are left a glass cannon as a result.
For all the potency of the strike-force on offer in Paris, Manchester City shouldn’t be found wanting. Aguero starting up front with David Silva, Kevin De Bruyne and Jesus Navas feeding him from behind is about as good as you’d hope for and should prove to be dangerous throughout.
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Does that allay my fears? No. In the end, City are still the underdogs and there’s just too many holes on the line-up for me to have absolute confidence. Even so, it’s an amazing accomplishment to have made it this far and, if my history of rubbishing players just before they play incredibly well continues, Mangala is in for a blinder of a game. Just don’t count on it.