Mangala faces City axe after nightmare
ELIAQUIM MANGALA’S calamitous display against Hull has left Manuel Pellegrini with a dilemma for Manchester City’s crucial Champions League home clash with Roma tomorrow night. Pellegrini has confirmed he will recall Joe Hart for a game City simply can’t afford to lose after giving his No 2 goalkeeper Willy Caballero a couple of first-team games. Now the City boss must decide if he can trust Mangala to overcome his 10-minute meltdown at Hull or recall Martin Demichelis to partner captain Vincent Kompany in central defence. Pellegrini and Kompany were quick to defend City’s £32million summer signing from Porto after Mangala headed into his own goal and then conceded a needless penalty that allowed Hull to come back from 2-0 down before half-time. But it has raised doubts over the most expensive defender in British football who had such an impressive debut against Chelsea six days earlier. After making a late start to the season following his protracted move from Portugal, Mangala has played three games in less than a week, wincluding his appearance in the Capital One Cup win over Sheffield Wednesday. Pellegrini may conclude that four in 10 days is asking too much or, alternatively, that replacing him with Demichelis now could damage the player’s confidence. Kompany was the first to put a sympathetic arm around Mangala’s shoulder after he headed in Liam Rosenior’s cross and then brought down Abel Hernandez with a clumsy challenge. Afterwards, the City skipper, who scored a spectacular own-goal at Fulham last season said: ‘It’s part of being a defender. If your children ever choose to play football, sign them up as strikers and then this won’t happen to them! ‘It will happen again to me, to him, to anyone else. I always look at the reaction and we saw it from him in the second half. It could have been so dangerous because it had gone to 2-2. ‘You’ve got time to think about it in the dressing room, but he just got on with it and stood up to the task. The rest of the game, he played well and stayed professional. You could not have asked for more.’ Fortunately for Mangala, Edin Dzeko’s second goal of the game and substitute Frank Lampard’s fourth in a week for his new club restored City’s advantage as the champions came back to win. Roma will be an altogether different prospect, however, if their 5-1 win over CSKA Moscow in the opening group game is any indication. City’s last-gasp defeat to Bayern Munich has left them with little margin for error, and Pellegrini said: ‘It will be a very tough group and we cannot drop points at home. ‘Roma won their first game and we lost ours. If you play in the Champions League group stage, you play six games. If you lose the first two, then it’s more difficult.’ Asked if Hart would return, the City boss added: ‘Yes. He’s in a very good moment.’ The same can certainly be said of Lampard, who followed up his dramatic equaliser off the bench against old club Chelsea and two more in the cup by scoring again at Hull. Speculation continues over how long City can hold on to the 36-year-old midfielder before he joins up with their sister club New York City. February looks the most likely if Yaya Toure and the Ivory Coast progress to the latter stages of the Africa Cup of Nations but all options are open — including one to keep Lampard for the whole season. ‘We need to enjoy him while he’s here,’ said Pablo Zabaleta. ‘I’m so happy for Frank. I said to him it takes me three or four years to get as many goals as he has scored in one week! ‘He’s a great professional, a great example for the youngsters. He is 36 but trains like he is still a young lad.’