No love for Kompany as Toure named Manchester City’s key man
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Another game without Yaya Toure and another loss for Manchester City has once again highlighted the importance of the Ivorian in the Sky Blues’ pursuit of silverware.
The central midfield powerhouse was banned for last night’s 2-1 Champions League defeat against Barcelona, adding further credence to the theory that City are not the same side when their star man is unavailable.
This theory has been hammered home by the latest Ladbrokes poll, which identified Toure as the most influential player at the Etihad.
City superfan Noel Gallagher may recently have named David Silva as the best City player of all time but the majority of fans do not agree.
The African midfielder won the vote by a landslide, taking a whopping 58 per cent of the total.
Silva was second in the voting but trailed his midfield colleague by some distance with just 24 per cent of the votes.
Sergio Aguero, who kept City’s Champions League dream alive with a 69th minute strike last night, rounded out the top three with 18 per cent.
Surprisingly club captain Vincent Kompany, the only other named player in the poll, failed to attract a single vote.
The theory that the presence of Toure can lift City to higher performance levels will be put to the test this weekend when the Citizens travel to Anfield to take on an in-form Liverpool side.
The Reds are unbeaten in 18 matches in all competitions, having last lost to Manchester United on December 14th.
Despite this, City go into the game as 13/10 favourites to take all three points, with Liverpool priced at 19/10 to boost their top four push with a win.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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