Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini says injuries could scupper chase for honours on three fronts

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini says injuries could scupper chase for honours on three fronts

Roberto Mancini admits Manchester City’s injury crisis is threatening their pursuit of honours on three fronts but expects them to be able to cope with the demands of the Champions League next season.

Directing traffic: Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini provides an animated prescence on the sidelines  Photo: AP

By Graham Chase 7:30AM GMT 24 Feb 2011

Mancini expects to be without defender Micah Richards and midfielder James Milner for Thursday’s match against Aris Salonika because of calf and hamstring problems respectively.

The Italian, who on Wednesday confirmed that goalkeeper Shay Given was likely to miss three months with shoulder surgery causing Manchester City to recall David Gonzalez from a loan spell at Leeds, expected to have just 16 players available for Thursday night, with Nigel de Jong and Adam Johnson both out with ankle injuries.

The second leg with Aris is City’s 13th match of the year and Mancini acknowledges that he cannot afford any more problems as they enter a pivotal period in their campaign.

In spite of his mounting concerns, Mancini believes City have progressed to such an extent that they could emulate his Sampdoria team, who reached the European Cup final in 1992.

“I think that every year you can improve,” he said. “At this moment we are looking to finish second, third, even first even though that’s difficult.

“But we want to be in a Champions League position and try to win something. Next year it could be different maybe because we can improve the team.

“We have players with a lot of experience. Playing in the Champions League at the start, it can be a problem but I played for Sampdoria in their first time in the Champions League 20 years ago and we got to the final.

“We need to improve because it’s clear we are not like Barca, Madrid, Milan or Inter. They are teams that have played in the Champions League for a long time.

“But for this year if we do well in the Europa League it will give us good experience.”

Mancini, who refused to respond to agent Kia Joorabchian’s claims that Carlos Tévez could leave for Corinthians, did not have European football to contend with last season and appears bemused at what is being expected of his players.

“It’s a big problem because this month will be very important for us,” he added. “We lost Johnson at the end of January and Nigel, Micah, Milner, all big problems because ankle, knee.

“When you play through to March 20 with one game every three days it’s very difficult but we have 16 players and it will be important that we don’t pick up any more injuries in the next few days.”

Match Details

Manchester City (4-4-2): Hart; Zabaleta, Kompany, Lescott, Kolarov; Wright-Phillips, Y Toure, Barry, Silva; Dzeko, Tevez.

Aris (4-4-1-1): Sifakis; Vangeli, Guiaro, Lazaridis, Michel; Neto, Prittas, Faty, Sakata; Toja; Bobadilla.

Referee: P Kralovec (Czech Rep).

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