Manchester City short of defensive options against Chelsea
Manchester City suddenly find themselves in huge defensive problems for Saturday’s clash against Chelsea, who have so far maintained a 100% win record in both the English Premier League and the Champions League.
It was a disappointing night for the Citizens when they travelled to West Brom on Wednesday, when cash couldn’t beat class as the mega spending side succumbed to a humiliating defeat to newly promoted West Bromwich. Finally, it was a 2-1 drubbing in favour
of West Brom and manager Roberto Mancini revealed that he has crisis in the back line against Chelsea’s visit to Manchester.
The only possibility for the home side standing a chance against the inform Chelsea is for Micah Richards to recover from a hamstring injury. Manchester City is left with only three recognized defenders in the form of Pablo Zabaleta, Vincent Kompany and
Kolo Toure and the manager would now have serious concerns over the flank positions. Mancini stated that the side has a lot of problems and hoped that Micah Richards can somehow recover. If that’s not the case, Mancini has recognized defenders to play at the
left back position. For Richards to be fit for the clash would be a miracle but without him, Zabaleta would be featuring on the right and City would need for an emergency left flank player.
In such a situation, midfielder Adam Johnson may well be asked to play on the left position with Barry and Milner featuring in the midfield. Owing to these concerns, Mancini’s team choice against Hawthorns was a shaky one, where even though the side managed
to take the lead in the first half owing to a strike by Jo, the home side came back fighting and two goals from Gianni Zuiverloon and Simon Cox were enough to sink the high spending club.
"We couldn't take any risks. If I had more players available it would be a different team. But when you play like us and Chelsea, on Saturday at 12.45, the time to recover is very short. They would need minimum three days so to play tonight would have been
dangerous", claimed the former Inter Milan coach.
City has already spent nearly 1 billion pounds since its takeover by the Abu Dhabi group in the last one year and club owner Sheikh Mansour would be in a world of misery, who was hoping that the club would finally end their 34 year trophy drought.
"I don't regret making the changes. Saturday is more important, the FA Cup is more important. The Europa League is more important. I did not regard this as a necessary sacrifice. We wanted to win. That is why I had four senior players on the bench”, claimed
a disappointed manager.
The manager acknowledged the fact that his side might lose as the starting XI had 6 youngsters. Yet the manager was happy with the performance of the youngsters and claimed that even though his team lost, they had a chance to play and can still improve.
West Brom assistant manager Michael Appleton was extremely delighted with the win and stated that it was a great result. The manager added that the side played positively and despite the changes, the lad’s response was outstanding. The assistant coach continued
by saying that they expected City to play their second team due to the weekend clash with Chelsea. But when the side’s top players entered the pitch, West Brom was seen on the back foot but was still able to defend their lead and that is what mattered in the
end.
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