City Midfielder Nigel de Jong Still in Roberto Mancini's Plans

Manager Roberto Mancini insists out-of-favour Manchester City midfielder Nigel de Jong remains an integral part of his plans and he made his first start since November at Sunderland on New Year's Day and was removed at half-time by Mancini to the Netherlands international, who had a spell out in August and September with a foot injury is out of contract at the end of next season and is yet to agree a new deal.

A Speculation has surfaced over whether the 27-year-old will remain at Ethiad Stadium but Mancini still regards him as an important player and the manager said, Nigel had too many problems when we started the season for the two months off for injury.

The After this the squad played a different system with two strikers, two offensive players like wingers and only two midfielders in this reason Nigel did not play a lot of games but he is still an important player is no change in this situation and now he can play to i think it is normal that one player, when he doesn't play, is frustrated to for him it is difficult but now we are playing 5 games in 16 days and we need our players.

Manchester City Manager Roberto Mancini Claims He Would Have Made More Changes in Midfield if He Had More Options.

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini claims he is lacking midfielders in the wake of the team's 2-2 draw at Fulham on Sunday and the city led 2-0 at Craven Cottage thanks to Sergio Aguero's double before goals from Bobby Zamora and Danny Murphy sealed an unlikely comeback.

Mancini's side tackled Napoli in their UEFA Champions League debut on Wednesday and Italian tactician insists he would have made more changes to a team if he had more options for the likes of Nigel de Jong and James Milner on the sidelines City's manager only has Gareth Barry and Yaya Toure as options in a middle of the park.

We're lacking players at this moment, commented Mancini and i can only change the full-backs or the strikers and i have only two midfield players for the James Milner and Nigel De Jong are injured.

Mancini is not angry his players failed to pick up all 3 points from their weekend London trip and he was disappointed by the result and do we lack that? Yes, probably he continued for i am not angry but I'm disappointed for my players probably thought they had done enough to win.

Roberto Mancini International career for a success at club level Mancini never became a regular for Italy at U-21 level Mancini was part of the team which reached the semi-finals in UEFA U-21 Championship 1984 and finished runners-up in UEFA U-21 Championship 1986 and he made his international debut in 1984 against Canada,Fierce competition for places hindered his international opportunities with forward players like Gianfranco Zola, Roberto Baggio and later Francesco Totti and Alessandro Del Piero hastened his self-imposed exile from the Italian national team.