Some people believe Yaya Touré is overrated, which is fine. Everyone is allowed an opinion and even people who find Touré underwhelming, with his crucial goals and inspirational performances for Manchester City, have the right to vote. It is not ideal but that is the price we pay for living in a democracy.
Yet those who are firmly in Touré’s corner have been going through a crisis of confidence, much like the big man himself. A towering force in City’s midfield on their way to winning the title last season, Touré has endured a loss of form following problems off the pitch. First he suggested he wanted to leave City and then he had to deal with the death of his younger brother, Ibrahim, in June. Understandably that hit Touré hard and, after a sluggish World Cup, he continued to struggle at the start of this campaign, his commitment and even his usefulness to City called into question.
For long periods at Villa Park on Saturday, Touré’s malaise was showing no signs of going away. City were finding it difficult to break through Villa’s massed defence and you could hear the knives being sharpened when Touré twice knocked simple passes out of play in the first half. He was a picture of frustration, aghast at his failure to complete the most basic of tasks, and the thought must have crossed Manuel Pellegrini’s mind that City would be better off without Touré.
Pellegrini knew better. He knew Touré has always had a knack of scoring important goals for City and so he found a way to bring out the best in him. Just after the hour, he introduced Fernando and Frank Lampard for Edin Dzeko and the hamstrung Fernandinho, switched to a three-man midfield and the reward came when a liberated Touré broke Villa’s resistance by firing home from 20 yards in the 82nd minute. It was his first goal in the league since May and six minutes later Sergio Agüero rammed in a second to keep City within touching distance of Chelsea.
The consensus afterwards was that Pellegrini’s tactical alteration was behind Touré’s resurgence, although curiously the manager disagreed. “No, I don’t think that was the reason,” he said. ”I think he continued playing in the same way – one time with Fernandinho by his side and then with Fernando and Lampard. He always had the same freedom to make the movement to go inside the box. I don’t think that was a tactical change to allow Yaya to score.
“We tried for 65 minutes. They had so many players inside the box it was very difficult for both strikers to have the ball. I think playing with Frank – who also has a lot of goals – behind the striker could change the problem they had the whole game. The last 25 minutes we must make the change, to change the way they defended.”
Pellegrini likes playing with two strikers and domestically his 4-4-2 system has brought City plenty of joy, yet the change to 4-3-3 worked and could be the solution in Europe. The exceptional David Silva became more influential, Lampard was a threat and Touré had more protection. Touré has not found it easy for City in the Champions League and was exposed against Bayern Munich and Roma.
“I repeat that for me it isn’t a tactical problem,” Pellegrini said. “We have a lot of statistics on games when we play with two and how many we play with one. The most amount of games we win is with two strikers and four midfielders. We can make changes – it is important to do it.”
The hope for Pellegrini is that Touré’s goal against Villa is the boost he needed, although he insisted he has always had faith in him. “Because I speak with him every day I know what he thinks and know the way he works,” Pellegrini said.
“He was working in the perfect way. All of the players in the world can have better or worse moments. He always criticises himself on when he was going to return to his normal performance.”
Man of the match David Silva (Manchester City)
