Analysing the Demise of Vincent Kompany's Form for Manchester City

Manchester City's Vincent Kompany has endured a fairly miserable domestic season, with a host of poor performances blotting an already ailing copybook. Over the past 20 months he's firmly fallen from grace in people's estimations, moving from undoubted world-class star to outside the top 25 at his position on the pitch.

Those who watch Belgium, but not City, on a regular basis will be startled by this revelation: For his national side, and in particular during the 2014 FIFA World Cup, he's been in strong form up until this weekend. He's the leader, both spiritually and figuratively, and holds together a young side finding its feet under the crippling weight of expectation.

But even his national form deteriorated severely over the weekend; his performance against Israel was, to be frank, truly bizarre. He picked up a red card for hauling down his man after failing to beat him and was seen earlier in the game doing keepy-uppies on the halfway line before blazing a 50-yard strike well over the bar.

So what's happened? Why has his form dropped so dramatically in such a short timespan?

Credit: UEFA

The difference in domestic and international form serves as a veritable clue and stands as an ideal place to start, and immediately it's obvious that Marc Wilmots' 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 is far more structured and secure than Manuel Pellegrini's 4-4-2.

Wilmots uses Axel Witsel, the vice-captain of the side, as a dedicated holding midfielder, shielding the back four with expertise and near-elite-level talent. He's an unsung performer tucked away in Russia with Zenit St Petersburg; had he not made an early, pricey move to Eastern Europe, he'd likely be at a top Premier League or La Liga club now.

Kompany exudes confidence when playing for his national side and has until recently held an ever-changing back line together. The central-defensive spot alongside him is something of a revolving door due to injuries, with Toby Alderweireld, Jan Vertonghen, Thomas Vermaelen and Laurent Ciman all playing there over the last 12 months.

The slow nature of Belgium's play, too, helps the side establish a measure of control and, crucially, limits the number of chances surrendered. That inevitably protects Kompany and his defensive colleagues.

Team	Possession	Shots	Shots on Target
Israel	45%	11	5
Cyprus	38%	2	0
Wales	43%	8	4
BIH	41%	12	3
Andorra	25%	1	0

But for the Citizens he's been all at sea and was even dropped for the clean-sheet victory over Leicester City in March. That his return to the side in the next match, against Burnley, resulted in a shock 1-0 loss really hasn't helped his cause.

The 4-4-2 (or loose 4-2-3-1) gives him very little protection, it's true. Fernando hasn't been what City had hoped for, and Yaya Toure's expiring engine has left some pretty sizable gaps in midfield for the opposition to exploit. Some point to the chaos ahead of Kompany and attribute blame, but his individual characteristics are a serious concern, too.

In space or not, protected or not, City's captain is taking up odd positions, setting his line wrong and making individual errors. He has a habit of wandering out of defence looking for the ball and leaving acres behind him for opposing strikers to penetrate, and he is constantly trying to step out to set a line that's too high to protect Joe Hart.

Credit: beINSport

Against Swansea City, when Wilfried Bony was an opponent, not a colleague, the Ivorian duped Kompany into coming out to meet him before interchanging play with Gylfi Sigurdsson and firing home. This habit of following the ball and leaving holes has become rather common.

He's also stopped making the mandatory secondary and tertiary shoulder checks a centre-back must do when the opposition pass across him or behind him. Against Chelsea, he watched Branislav Ivanovic switch it to Eden Hazard on the left while Loic Remy darted in behind him to convert the cross. By the time Remy was wheeling away to celebrate, Kompany was on the floor with his head in his hands.

Credit: Astro Super Sport

It's now, officially, not just a blip for the Belgian; he's struggled to put together a run of 90 strong minutes, let alone three games, all season long. That Martin Demichelis has been their best defender for some time is indicative of the situation facing Pellegrini, and the fact that Eliaquim Mangala has taken an age to settle—and still rarely looks comfortable—is a big problem.

The argument that City do little to protect Kompany is a valid one, but from an individual-assessment basis, he looks lost. Even with a Witsel-like figure ahead of him at City, he'd likely still be switching off, allowing runs, losing his marker and ball-watching. 

It's one of those problems a manager hopes he never has to face: How do you drop/replace the captain of the club? The Mangala-Demichelis combination, amazingly, is the least error-prone Pellegrini has at his disposal, but will he put Kompany on the bench?

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