Pellegrini, ahead of Sunday’s clash at Old Trafford, denied that he was “punishing” Kompany for playing for his country.
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Overall, this is going to be an extremely hard derby day and I fear that City will have just too much firepower for us to cope.
“I just deal with it. I dealt with my decision and I didn’t have a problem with it”. I can’t see him causing too much trouble to the in form Smalling. “It’s important to have a point here, another point in the table, but I don’t think it’s the way the team must play.”, Pelligrini said in the post match press conference. “I don’t need anyone giving me any explanation”.
Upon his return from global duty, Kompany was dropped for City’s games against Bournemouth and Sevilla, but featured in Sunday’s 0-0 draw with Manchester United, and the 29-year-old has admitted that the tug-of-war between club and country will always be a thorny issue.
But Kompany says his club and global commitments may continue to cause ructions.
Pellegrini believed the defender needed more time to recover from a calf injury that had ruled him out of the previous five club games. I prefer to play in another way but we defended well.
“It’s not just one season when there has been big signings and big players coming in. It’s necessary. Sometimes you get the best out of a team with that competition but that’s true for every position, not just my position”.
The report indicates that Kompany will replace new signing Nicolas Otamendi in the City team and will play alongside Eliaquim Mangala in defence. Of course, one of the crucial things for us is to stop the creativity of De Bruyne, so whoever starts in the middle will need to be ultra-vigilant in stopping the Belgian from pulling the strings.
He added: “Both teams wanted to protect a good position in the league”.
“It’s a performance that I’m glad we have in the locker but I’d prefer it if we didn’t have to use it”, he said.
“If you can’t win, then don’t lose it. People have said that we can’t defend and in the second half we did very well”.
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“I predict a very different derby when we actually have to win the game and that will be the case when the next one comes around”.
