It is understood that Pellegrini was not pleased with Kompany’s decision to play for Belgium in a Euro 2016 qualifier against Israel on October 13, despite being unavailable for City’s previous five matches due to a calf injury.
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Reuters Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne has played down the significance of Sunday’s top-of-the-table clash against bitter rivals Manchester United.
Manuel Pellegrini has declared that Vincent Kompany is no longer a Manchester City untouchable. I need every week to choose the XI that I think is the best for that game and when the others play they must wait, exactly the same for the players of the squad.
“I’m not punishing Vincent”.
This caused Pellegrini to view Kompany and Eliaquim Mangala, his defensive partner, as certainties in his first-choice lineup.
Nevertheless, Pellegrini has displayed improved pragmatism this season, often opting for a 4-2-3-1 against strong sides, and here, Yaya Toure started behind Wilfried Bony, with Fernandinho and Fernando protecting the back four.
Kompany was one of the last players to sign for City before Sheikh Mansour’s takeover sensationally transformed the club’s fortunes, from those of Premier League also-rans operating in the considerable shadow of Alex Ferguson’s United to challengers for major honours.
He had been a crucial part of their stellar start to the season, only conceding once in the six games he appeared in before picking up an injury in last month’s loss to Juventus. “So the moments of the player are the most important thing”.
“Oh, nice! I didn’t know that”. Maybe I can be happy but not winning a title.
In an interview on the club’s website, he admitted that United never used to care about the rivalry but City’s competitiveness had forced the issue, saying: “Going into those derbies about seven years ago and it wasn’t an important game for them”.
“It’s one of those things, the whole situation is a matter of opinions”, Kompany told Sky Sports. We came here looking to take three points but respect to Man United who were set up well and they caused us a few problems further up the field, but we defended well and limited them to two half-chances.
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“I think that our team, if you remember last season, we had a lot of different ways to play”, Pellegrini said.
