Vincent Kompany injury no excuse for Manchester City loss, Joe Hart says
Sunday 6 December 2015 14:02, UK
Joe Hart says it is "too easy" to blame Vincent Kompany's absence for Manchester City's defeat at Stoke.
City were beaten 2-0 at the Britannia on Saturday, a scoreline that flattered visitors missing Kompany, Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero.
Only one of the 16 Premier League goals conceded by City this season has been scored with Kompany on the pitch, and Manuel Pellegrini said on Saturday he does not know whether his first-choice centre-half will return against Swansea next weekend.
City have won just one of their past four league games but, according to Hart, the solution to their current problems is to work together rather than wait for their captain's return.
He said: "We've got a great squad and Vinny [Kompany] is a massive part of it but Nicolas Otamendi, Martin Demichelis and Eliaquim Mangala are good centre-halves.
"After a 2-0 loss it's probably easy to say [Kompany was missed] but we'll stick together as a squad, work for each other and get through this.
"At the level we're playing at, we need to turn out performances of seven out of 10 at least every week and rely on some players to produce eights and nines. That's how we should be playing and we're not.
"Credit to Stoke - I thought they deserved to win. Conditions were tough but that's English football - I said before the game no-one would be able to walk off the pitch with an excuse."
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