Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini has confirmed that Sergio Aguero is still struggling with a heel injury, according to the Daily Mail.
Advertisement
Shaqiri’s best performance since his £12 million arrival in the summer helped inspire Stoke to a comfortable 2-0 victory that knocked City off the top of the Premier League.
After 14 game weeks, Manchester City are leading the Premier League table and with Chelsea seemingly out of contention, Pellegrini’s men are being labeled as the favourites to clinch the league in May.
Despite the figures, Pellegrini believes City are capable of defending well without Kompany as they did it towards the end of last season, telling a reporter at the pre match press conference: “No, I don’t agree with your conclusions. We have bad games, as every team do, but we must continue not to change the style and try not to make so many mistakes”.
“Last season we finished the last six games without Vincent Kompany”, The Guardian quotes Pellegrini as saying.
“Over the whole season, there are a lot of games that we play without our important players”, he said.
“We had a game plan as we always do, We knew what we needed to do well”.
Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart admits the team’s performances have dropped below the minimum required recently but he denies they are suffering from a lack of leadership.
One of the best games of the day will see Manchester City play host to a strong Borussia Mochengladbach team at the Ethiad Arena. The Potters have now won six of their last nine games in the league.
“Ahead of them we had a creative spark and ability in key areas to create chances because that’s probably been lacking as we haven’t had quite enough devilment”.
However, their opponents were simply woeful and while Pellegrini’s complaints about injuries do carry some weight he still spent more than pounds 150?million on players in the summer, with the high-profile -recruits all playing at Stoke. Credit to Stoke – I thought they deserved to win.
Schubert accepts expectations are rising but does not think that places any extra pressure on the players in terms of the City clash.
Advertisement
Missing yesterday were three players he considers to be the spine of his team, captain Vincent Kompany, midfield playmaker Yaya Toure and talismanic striker Sergio Aguero and Pellgrini was quick to blame their absences as a contributing factor for his side’s defeat to a team managed by one of his predecessors, Mark Hughes. After being suspended for Saturday’s match against Stoke City, it looks like Eliaquim Mangala will return to partner in defense with Nicolas Otamendi.
