Kompany cautious on return from injury

Alam Khan - Reporter 09:01 25/10/2016
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  • Kompany has struggled with injuries.

    Vincent Kompany insists Manchester City will come back stronger from their current crisis – just like he has after his own injury nightmare.

    The Belgian’s side visit neighbours Manchester United in a crucial League Cup clash on Wednesday on the back of five matches without a win.

    Boss Pep Guardiola was so concerned after Sunday’s disappointing 1-1 draw with Southampton that he kept his players in the dressing room for 50 minutes to discuss their struggles following a start that saw them win the first 10 games.

    Captain Kompany, making his first Premier League start since April, said: “We’re adults, we’re all highly ambitious and we realise that we have to move as a unit and behave as a team.

    “I think anything in the dressing-room stays in the dressing-room, but I think it’s positive to have some sort of maturity in the team, to recognise we need to move forward, but to have a positive spirit and, as I said, these kind of results sometimes give you something extra and that’s what we need to get out of it.

    “Listen, we’ve had worse periods than this, but when it’s not going 100 per cent your way, you just need to stick to some basics that are going to bring you back up and I really believe in that. I feel this team has got the best ahead [of it], but these kind of results will force us to look at improving again.

    “I don’t like to compare, but just to say about this manager that he’s got a very strong idea of what he wants to do and I think the team has bought into it as well.

    “He has brought in a method that most of us have seen on TV and watched a lot, so I think we knew a lot more about his methods before he arrived. But now it’s up to us to apply it and I’m not so much disappointed in the way we’re losing points, I just feel like…it goes both ways and eventually I’m sure it’ll land for us.

    “But in a season there’s ups and downs and if this is a little bit of a bad period for us then maybe it’s not too bad, you know? It’ll make us stronger, I’m confident of that.

    “I thought we’ve been playing well in the last few games, but not getting the results we needed, and 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.

    “I’ve been like this as long as I can remember, since I was a six-year-old player, winning was always a must, but with experience you learn you must do the right things.”

    Vincent

    It is also with experience that Kompany is now trying to manage his fitness after a succession of muscle problems left him repeatedly sidelined and desperately trying to save his career.

    After being curiously left out of the squad for last week’s 4-0 Champions League loss at Barcelona when deemed fit and available, Guardiola had to deny the 30-year-old’s City future was in doubt through worries about his constant injury troubles.

    And Kompany, who joined the club in 2008, said: “It’s hard to come back, obviously, but I know what I have to do to be back at my level.

    “My situation is very simple, I think you can make a mistake to over-analyse things.

    “I’ve been out for six months, 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.

    “I told them how I felt the day before the [Barcelona] 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.

    “Maybe another day I would never have gone off after 70 minutes like I did [against Southampton], but it’s part of the bargain, let’s put it that way, and it’s for the best.”

    “My role is to be available as many times as I can, and then the rest I feel extremely confident that, when I’m available for a longer period of time, I will be a player that’s very useful to the team,” added the centre-back, whose groin and thigh injury in City’s Champions League semi-final second-leg loss to Real Madrid also saw him miss the Euro 2016 finals for his country.

    “I think I thrive on the challenge. God knows what would have happened if I’d never had those injuries, but I need to get something that makes me stronger out of it, something different from other players, and that’s what I believe in.

    “Okay, that’s been my reality for the last few years now, but motivation only keeps going up, because I feel like I belong on the pitch and I deserve to have good moments because of how I’ve worked every single day to come back. But I trust myself, incredibly.

    “The last thing I want to say maybe is that when you live through your career as a footballer, just that one moment that you can experience…if I give up then I know the outcome. But if I carry on there’s always a chance that I’ll relive those moments. So my motivation can never be in doubt.

    “I really know there are some steps to build up now. First of all for me is being back to being really healthy for the team, and then hopefully it’s having a place in the team that makes a difference for the lads.”

    Facing rivals United also fuels Kompany’s motivation. While the League Cup competition may not be high on either club’s list of trophy priorities this season, there will be added spice given City are the holders and need a morale-boosting victory, and United will want to respond to their own 4-0 humbling at Chelsea.

    Kompany added: “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.

    “The bigger the game, the better. That’s how I’ve always approached it in my career and I will for the rest of my career. Those games are what you play [football] for.”

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