Roberto Mancini admits defensive crisis at Manchester City | Mail Online
Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini claims he is desperately short of defensive options for Saturday's Barclays Premier League visit of Chelsea with Micah Richards a major doubt.
After last night's 2-1 Carling Cup defeat at West Bromwich Albion, City could have just three fit defenders for the clash at Eastlands.
Mancini will have only Pablo Zabaleta, Vincent Kompany and Kolo Toure available to face the only Premier League side left with a 100 per cent record unless Micah Richards recovers from a hamstring injury that kept him out at The Hawthorns.
Aleksandar Kolarov, Jerome Boateng and and Wayne Bridge are all currently sidelined.
'We have big problems,' he said. 'I hope that Micah Richards can recover. If not I don't know who can play left-back.'
If Richards misses out, it appears likely that Zabaleta will play on the right side and City would look for an alternative on the left flank. That could either involve Adam Johnson being pressed into emergency service, or more likely a midfielder such as James Milner or Gareth Barry.
Keep an eye out for your Citeh midfielders then. And perhaps it's a week to shy away from Joe Hart - as if with Chelsea visiting he wasn't already a stay-away. There will be better match-ups to come as Citeh next face Newcastle, @Blackpool, Arsenal and Wolves.
@Jeremy+Neal: Great work as always, guess this makes it easier to keep Drogba/Malouda as many are talking about dropping 1 or both for Chelsea's first real test. I can see no reason to think both can score at the weekend.
ReplyDeleteBout that time to take a risk on Joe Cole again :D
I need him to come good or I look really foolish since your post dedicated to yours truly :D
Good luck as always