The view from City: Kompany reliance and Toure premonition
Ahead of today's Capital One Cup final at Wembley, Manchester City fan Dan Burke gives us the inside track on his team – including how Manuel Pellegrini is likely to set up, the importance of Vincent Kompany and a fear Kolo Toure is going to score.
Where are you going to be watching the game this afternoon?
I’ll be at Wembley, block 117, and probably a little worse for wear by the time the game kicks off!
Tell us about City’s most recent performances… how confident are you for the final?
We’ve had a pretty poor season by the standards expected of us nowadays, which is especially disappointing considering we won our first five league games without conceding a goal and looked like we’d run away with the title. Injuries to key players have hampered us but that’s not really a good enough excuse for a club with City’s resources, and we’ve been well beaten in a number of games, most recently when our title rivals Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur both beat us on our own ground in successive fixtures. Most damning of all is the fact we haven’t won back-to-back league games since October so it’s quite miraculous that we’re still in with a shout for the title at this moment in time.
However, our Champions League campaign has been one of the positives to take from the season so far and the 3-1 win we picked up away to Dynamo Kyiv in midweek was very encouraging. Admittedly, we weren’t up against the most illustrious opposition in Europe but we played them off the park and should have won by a greater margin than we did. If we play like that again on Sunday I think we’ll win, but it all depends which City turns up on the day.
How are you likely to line up at Wembley?
Hopefully in a 4-3-3 formation with Sagna, Kompany, Otamendi and Clichy at the back, Toure, Fernando and Fernandinho in the middle and Aguero, Sterling and Silva up top. Worryingly, it seems likely Pellegrini will pick Willy Caballero over Joe Hart in goal as he’s done in every other round of the competition. Caballero has done very little in a City shirt to merit even the occasional appearance here and there and was at fault for at least three of the goals in the 5-1 FA Cup defeat at Chelsea last week. Meanwhile, Hart is having a fantastic season and Pellegrini would be very foolish not to pick him for this game, but he can be very stubborn when it comes to things like this.
If we take Sergio Aguero out of the equation, who is your most important player?
Vincent Kompany, without a shadow of a doubt. After a couple of iffy seasons, he began this one in brilliant form and was instrumental in the five clean sheets we kept in the first five games. Trouble is, he has a seemingly incurable problem with his calf which has sidelined him for the majority of the season and we’re a much weaker team when he’s not in it. We shouldn’t be so overly reliant on him by now but he’s our captain, our leader and the difference between us defending well and defending amateurishly.
What lessons do City have to learn from the 4-1 at the Etihad earlier in the season?
Oh God, I still wake up screaming in the middle of the night from nightmares about that game. We just couldn’t handle Liverpool’s pressing, particularly our centre-backs, Mangala and Demichelis, who were absolutely woeful. It was a classic example of Pellegrini not tailoring his tactics to suit the opposition and just expecting us to win playing our own way. That he also benched Otamendi and Fernandinho, our two best players at the time, really didn’t help and in truth we were lucky to escape with just a 4-1. Three men in midfield plus Kompany and Otamendi at centre-back will hopefully make us less susceptible to the ‘gegenpress’ this time, but I was dreading the prospect of meeting Liverpool in the final after what happened last time and I probably won’t get much sleep on Saturday night.
What have you made of Liverpool overall this season?
You remind me very much of City when Roberto Mancini first took over from Mark Hughes in that your manager is working with a squad of players he didn’t get to pick himself yet he’s still slowly getting his ideas across and picking up some good results while playing attractive football. The problem, of course, is that you aren’t doing it consistently enough at the moment but that will come in time and I expect you to be challenging for the title next season once Klopp has had the chance to bring his own players in.
Which player or players most concern you in the Liverpool team?
Philippe Coutinho always seems to score against us so I’m wary of him more than anyone, but you have a number of quality players who can cause us problems on their day and I’d much rather Daniel Sturridge was still injured. Don’t ask me why but I’ve also got a horrible feeling Kolo Toure’s going to score on Sunday.
Reds fans have obviously taken to Jürgen Klopp very quickly. What’s your impression of him as an opposition fan?
I loved him when he was at Borussia Dortmund and I still like him now. He’s one of the best managers in the game with an extremely impressive track record and I know how delighted you all are to have him at your club. Away from the dugout he’s charismatic, funny and I’m sure he’d be a great guy to go for a beer with. If I wasn’t so besotted with Pep Guardiola, I’d be very jealous indeed.
What’s your prediction?
I fancy an action-packed 2-2 draw with Raheem Sterling to score the winning penalty in the shootout.