Group ASV Salzburg v Manchester City: AFTER ALL the transfer business, with six new players driving through the gates at a total of €151 million, there was an incongruity about Manchester City arriving in Austria for their opening Europa League group game with only two strikers available and the manager, Roberto Mancini, bemoaning his lack of resources.
Injuries to Emmanuel Adebayor and Mario Balotelli mean Mancini will have only Carlos Tevez and the much maligned Jo in terms of recognised forwards for the tie against Red Bull Salzburg.
The City manager spoke about it being a “big problem”, one that has been exacerbated by his decision to exclude Roque Santa Cruz from his official 25-man squad in favour of the academy graduate Shaleum Logan.
“When we made that decision we could never have known that we lose two strikers in one week,” Mancini said when asked whether Santa Cruz’s omission might have been a mistake. “We had to include four homegrown players on the list and that meant someone had to miss out.”
After two fitful years Jo probably now has the ignominious honour of being the player the City supporters dislike the most but Mancini remains supportive. “I think Jo is a good player,” he said. “He has a good attitude and good technique.”
Joleon Lescott has also missed the trip after a groin injury that could rule him out for two weeks but Wayne Bridge is fit again and will make his first appearance of the season against a team that won their domestic league last season but were eliminated from the Champions League qualifiers by Hapoel Tel Aviv.
Salzburg have since taken five points from their first five league games, leaving them third from bottom. but Mancini has promised not to underestimate them despite feeling obliged to make several changes.
One of those is expected be the reintroduction of David Silva, the €30 million signing from Valencia, after an indifferent start to his City career. He has looked a dejected figure on the bench at times this season and there have even been cheeky claims from Spain that he could be on his way home during the January transfer window.
“When a player arrives in a new country he may have some problems but I think after three, four or five games he will be back to normal,” Mancini said.
Silva’s hopes of making a favourable early impression have not been helped by Spain’s trips to Argentina and Mexico in the last few weeks.
City’s assistant manager Brian Kidd has described reports that Mario Balotelli is set to be out of action until the end of November as nonsense. After arriving at Eastlands from Inter Milan amid a huge fanfare, Balotelli’s €29 million move to the Premier League has so far fallen flat.
Injured on a goalscoring debut against Timisoara last month, Balotelli was sent back to Italy to begin rehabilitation after a knee operation that City hoped he would be back from within a couple of months.
Yet sources in Italy earlier this week claimed the damage was more extensive than City initially thought and that Balotelli would not be ready to play for another 10 weeks at best.
However, now back in Manchester, Balotelli is apparently on course to return exactly as scheduled, with Kidd completely bemused about where the revised comeback date had emerged from.
“There is nothing sinister in this,” countered Kidd. “Mario has had the operation, he has come back and is now on with his rehabilitation. Wherever these other rumours are coming from, they are nonsense.”
Balotelli was also up for discussion by Mancini who dismissed as “a joke” claims the controversial youngster, who has attracted more than his fair share of negative headlines in the past, was waving an AC Milan shirt from his hospital bed following his knee operation.
It seems bizarre that someone who has played such a minimal part in City’s season should be of such interest, although it emphasises just what a news story the big-spending Eastlands outfit have become.
Guardian Service
