Vincent Kompany has shrugged off doubts about his display in Manchester City’s 2-1 defeat to Barcelona on Tuesday evening after the captain was criticised for failing to clear a cross that led to Luis Suárez’s opener.
City lost the Champions League last 16 first leg after Suárez scored twice in the first half before Sergio Agüero pulled a goal back in the 69th minute. Gaël Clichy was then sent off for his second booking but Joe Hart saved Lionel Messi’s penalty in added time to give Manuel Pellegrini’s team a glimmer of hope for the return game at the Camp Nou on 18 March.
Suárez’s opener came when Kompany tried to head away a Lionel Messi delivery from the right and steered the ball into the Uruguay striker’s path, with Suárez subsequently finishing past Hart.
In the opening moments a mistimed clearance from the Belgian had been close to an own goal and Paul Scholes, working for ITV as a pundit, also blamed Kompany for Suárez’s second.
“I think Kompany’s at fault here again,” said the former Manchester United midfielder. “Barcelona midfield players, they want somebody to come and dive in. Kompany dived in first. He got back but he hasn’t got a clue where Suárez is. He hasn’t protected the space at the front post.”
Scholes believes the captain is suffering a continuing dip in form. “Kompany, especially, has struggled and I think he’s struggled the last few weeks – he’s struggled tonight as well,” the 40-year-old said.
Kompany also put in shaky performances against Roma, in a Champions League home match and then away at CSKA Moscow later in the group stage. The 28-year-old was also at fault for Arsenal’s opener in City’s 2-0 home Premier League defeat last month. An attempted dribble caused Kompany to lose the ball and he conceded the penalty in the ensuing move from which the visitors opened the scoring.
Yet regarding his performance against Barça the defender said: “It is simply when the results go [well] everybody will say I am performing well, as long as the results don’t go our way people will say there are several players on the team not performing. All this is part of the game and it doesn’t bother me at all.
“You are going in with an angle. For me I cannot pay attention with it – it is what I have said. [In the] first half we were very disappointed, everyone, and in the second half it was so unfortunate we ended up with 10 men as I am curious to see what kind of game it would have become, it looked like we were back in the game.
“For us who knows: you score first goal over there and more pressure drops as you can afford to concede one more goal and just have to score one more.”
