Thursday 4 December 2014 12:14, UK
Manuel Pellegrini praised the central defensive partnership which built the foundations for Manchester City’s 4-1 victory over Sunderland.
Having been forced to alter his backline with captain Vincent Kompany injured and his regular defensive partner Eliaquim Mangala suspended, Pellegrini opted for the relatively unused pair of Martin Demichelis and Dedryck Boyata at the heart of the City defence.
Despite having fallen behind to a fortuitous opener from Connor Wickham at the Stadium of Light, City strolled to victory thanks to Sergio Aguero’s brace and a goal apiece from Stevan Jovetic and Pablo Zabaleta.
Options
And the City manager was quick to point to Wednesday’s performance as evidence that the team were unfazed by the defensive switch.
“It’s the same team that played last game except the two centre-backs because Kompany was injured and Mangala was suspended, he told Sky Sports.
“Demichelis was playing very well before his last game. He played against Swansea and did very well so I trust him a lot.
“I think that Boyata is working very well and now he has options to demonstrate what he can do in this team. It’s not easy to play here because we have important players in that position [centre-back]
“But in the year-and-a-half that I have been here, every time I have called on him, every time that he has played he has done very well. He has improved every day and now he’s got a chance to demonstrate.”
Pellegrini insisted that City’s recent poor form on Wearside – four consecutive 1-0 defeats – was not a concern heading into the game and instead decided to focus on his side's rich goalscoring form which has seen them stay in touch with league leaders Chelsea.
Offensive
“No it’s not a problem,” he added. “Statistics exist in football and you cannot work around that. I think every game is different, we were trying to win this game. We knew we were playing against a very good team but we don’t think about what happened in the past.
“In this moment the team is working very hard in defending and attacking. The only chance Sunderland had we were very unlucky because Pablo Zabaleta tried to clear the ball and the ball rebounded off Wickham.
“But the team are in a good moment we are playing very well and we continued our winning habit today with a similar performance to Southampton - with very strong defending and having good attacking also.
“It’s very important to be an attractive team, to be an offensive team and for the fans to enjoy the games. In the last two games we scored seven goals and also three goals against Bayern Munich so we are returning to have an important amount of goals every games and that for me is so important."
