CITY SKIPPER RECKONS MOURINHO’S ATTITUDE MAY HURT MAN UTD
incent Kompany believes Jose Mourinho’s insistence that the League Cup is bottom of his priority list could backfire on Manchester United today as the Manchester City captain called for an immediate reaction in the wake of Pep Guardiola’s blunt dressing-room inquest. Guardiola locked his players in the dressing room for 50 minutes after City extended their winless streak to five matches with a disappointing 1-1 draw at home to Southampton on Sunday.
The City manager is increasingly concerned about the number of individual errors his team are committing and how panicked his side have looked at the back against opponents who also press high from the front.
Celtic, Tottenham Hotspur, Barcelona and Southampton have all asked serious questions of City by squaring up to their defenders. Southampton’s goal was a combination of them pressurising City’s back three and a lapse of concentration from John Stones, whose blind pass was pounced upon by Nathan Redmond to score. Guardiola has wasted little time making a raft of changes at City and Kompany believes the squad need to start adapting quicker to the manager’s methods as they attempt to return to winning ways and deepen United’s woes.
Physically impossible
Mourinho had claimed over the weekend that he had not given today’s game a moment’s thought and that the competition was of least concern to him, but Kompany is adamant Manchester City are not thinking that way.
“It’s just physically impossible for me to play down a derby, but the more they [United] say this is the fourth competition, the better it is for us. Am I looking forward to it? Come on, always. The bigger the game, the better. Those games are what you play for.
“We’re adults, we’re all highly ambitious and we realise that we have to move [forward] as a unit and behave as a team and I think
Manchester City captain
anything in the dressing room stays in the dressing room.
“Sometimes the fact the results don’t come gives you that extra edge to go and look deeper and improve, and for us that’s maybe what’s been needed. The manager has brought in a method that most of us have seen on TV and watched a lot, so I think we knew a lot about
Injury setbacks
Kompany made his first Premier League start since April 19 against Southampton and claimed he never gave any intention to giving up after so many injury setbacks.
Guardiola had suggested that Kompany asked not to play against Barcelona last week because he was not in the right frame of mind but the Belgium defender said the decision was made for him by the club’s medical staff after he made a promise to them not to compromise himself.
“I’ve had to make one commitment to the medical staff, which was that I’d be honest towards them with my feelings, and that I would listen to them when they made a decision,” Kompany said.
“I told them how I felt the day before the game and they made the decision for me. That I wanted to play, of course — that wasn’t even in doubt — but I’ve just made this commitment to listen to them a little bit more.”
Kevin De Bruyne is likely to miss the United game with a calf injury but the problem is not thought to be serious.