Wilfried Bony's First Start Was Unlucky, Real Reason Why Kompany Isn't The Kompany We Know

Anyone reading our blog will be well aware I'm not a huge fan of Edin Dzeko and Wilfried Bony's first start and performance for City against Leicester City, his positioning was almost perfection and he was lucky not to score as Schwarzer put in a very strong performance.

I strongly believe starting the match gave him time to settle in finally and find his feet and scoring touch. I'm in no doubt what so ever that given more starts he will get on the score sheet sooner rather than later, he made more goal scoring chances for himself in that one match than Dzeko ever does in five combined matches.

Unlike Dzeko who prefers to run the left channel, Bony runs both left and right channels and patrol the 18 yard area. Here's some statistics comparing both players.

2014/15

Appearances:           Bony 26  Dzeko 28
Minuted played:      Bony 1.462  Dzeko 1.412
Minutes per goal:    Bony 162'  Dzeko 235'
Assists:                    Bony 3  Dzeko 4
Goals:                      Bony 9  Dzeko 6

These statistics clearly show that Wilfried Bony is a better Center Forward than Edin Dzeko without any doubt what so ever. Add to that that Bony achieved these statistics with Swansea City, as opposed to Dzeko being surrounded by the likes of Silva, Aguero, Toure and co. Don't get me wrong Dzeko is a good forward but in my opinion not as good as Bony who also defends better than Dzeko, I just don't believe Dzeko is the right man for City anymore. Compared to Bony, Dzeko is defensively lazy, an opinion shared by many of our City fan readers. I only hope Pellegrini now continues to start Bony and surprise me enough to gain my support back, but that's also only going to happen if he also learns from his mistakes of playing a forward that can't defend against the likes of clubs like Barcelona and Liverpool and instead either play Bony who can defend playing in the hole behind Aguero or an extra man in midfield.

Well done to Leicester City for keeping the score low, they did themselves credit and I hope they can kick on and survive the drop if they keep playing like they did against us. I'm not completely convinced Pellegrini's the man for City, if he continues to refuse to balance attack with defense, continues to play 442 against big clubs and continues to rely on the unreliable Dzeko and continues to fail to come up with a plan B and C then he has to go.

Vincent Kompany, now why exactly is he struggling?

Although I am not a fan of Roberto Mancini anymore, under Bobby we had the best defense in England. I truly believe one reason why Kompany is suffering is because Pellegrini continues to do nothing but attack and play in the opponents half. Now Left Back is our weakest position and it seems every club we play attacks us more down the left than down the right. So Pellegrini has us playing high up the field which exposes Kompany and his defenders to counter attacks, our midfielders are left back tracking all the time against the fast teams like Barcelona and Liverpool.

While Pellegrini insists on sticking to just one style of play, our defenders will continue to struggle and suffer, especially when they only have back up in the form of just one defensive midfielder in favor of two forwards against dangerous opposition. Everyone's figured us out and parks the bus playing counter attacking football and quite frankly, Pellegrini is looking naive, ignorant and arrogant.

Being out injured did Kompany no favors either, so it was inevitable that he would struggle especially by being exposed by his manager. I don't blame Kompany for the situation we find ourselves in, although a lot of our players have under performed, I strongly believe it's because Pellegrini has been running them into the ground by forcing them to play high up the field attacking at pace for 90 odd minutes all the time, the only time our lads get a break and slow down is when we are on the back foot and under pressure.

Some of you will probably see me as a Pellegrini hater but that couldn't be further from the truth. When he arrived I was excited, it's only this season that I've seen a side of him I don't like. His reluctance to get us playing like a world beater, As I said we have no plan B or C, we never play on the counter attack. I find nothing more frustrating than watching us counter attack as slow as we do, allowing even the weaker of teams plenty of time to get back into position and it's quite frankly sad with the players we have.

I would much rather we play a balanced game than attack attack attack, winning trophies and titles is a bonus and should come second. If Pellegrini woke up this morning and said to himself  'I'm going to learn from my mistakes, get my team back on track and create a plan B. Get my players playing a few different styles and make us Champions of Europe' then I'd back him to the hilt and he will have won my support back. Unfortunately I don't see that happening, but it's up to him to prove me wrong.

Right now I'm a big fan of Diego Simeone of Athletico Madrid, what he's done makes that grey haired muppet at Chelsea look average. I've watched and studied him closely over the past 6 odd months and I see no weakness in his armoury. OK his English isn't great to my knowledge but it's not like he can't learn from the best, half of our players speak Spanish, Portuguese or Brazilian anyway.

If Pellegrini does end up messing up completely and find himself sacked, then I sincerely hope Simeone is the man to replace him. Either way I'd be happy with a reformed Pellegrini or Simeone.

One thing I am in know doubt about though is, I'm not a fan of Edin Dzeko.