Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany has leapt to the defence of Eliaquim Mangala following his day to forget against Hull.
Mangala lived up to his £32million price tag against Chelsea last weekend but at the KC Stadium in the Premier League on Saturday, he headed into his own net and then conceded a clumsy penalty to cost his side an early two-goal lead.
The France centre-back’s blushes were spared as Edin Dzeko’s second goal of the match and Frank Lampard’s fourth strike in a week made things safe, leaving Kompany to speak up for his defensive partner.
“It’s part of being a defender. If your children ever choose to play football, sign them up as strikers and then this won’t happen to them,” said the Belgian.
“As defenders, we have to deal with this, it’s part of the job. But I always look at the reaction and we saw it from him in the second half. It could have been so dangerous because it had gone to 2-2, but he just got on with it and stood up to the task.
“The rest of the game, he played well, he stayed professional. You could not have asked for more.
“Sometimes you get half an hour like this, but you still have an hour to play well. That’s all you can do, it’s always about the next minutes and that’s how I think about it. I’ve seen in him a great reaction and, in the second half, he was spot on.
“There’s no harm done. Sometimes you say, ‘Get these things out of the way early’. As a defender, it’s a bit like being a goalkeeper, you kind of know these things will happen to you. You just never know when.”
Manchester City return to action on Tuesday night when they entertain Roma in the Champions League.
