Why Yaya Toure Is Under Most Pressure for Manchester City After Win over United

Manchester City supporters welcomed an old friend back to the Etihad in City's 1-0 victory over Manchester United. Now they hope he will stay awhile.

Yaya Toure played his best full game of the season against the loathed Red Devils. Football pundits throughout the United Kingdom took notice.

"Toure, man of the match in City’s 1-0 win against the 10 men of United...admitted things were beginning to get frustrating after chances, and penalty appeals, went begging at the Etihad," noted Jonny Singer for the Daily Mail.

One of the penalty shouts belonged to Toure.

"United would have been down to nine men if (referee Michael) Oliver had made the correct decision when Yaya Toure surged into the penalty area and Rojo, the wrong side of his man, took him down in the last piece of action of the first half," opined Daniel Taylor in The Guardian.

As is Toure's wont, though, he created one moment of brilliance that eventually led to the Sergio Aguero chance which proved to be the match-winner. "Toure played the ball between Valencia and Di María...Clichy picked out Aguero with a low cross and the Argentinian thumped a rising shot past David de Gea," wrote Taylor.

Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

The pass Toure hit Clichy with was just the sort of inspired ball that injured City midfielder David Silva normally makes. Silva does that sort of thing so regularly that it is almost boring. Toure, who shoulders a goalscoring load, often thinks to shoot first.

With CSKA Moscow coming to the Etihad on Wednesday, though, City need Toure's occasional creative streak to become more the rule than the exception. City's Champions League hopes effectively hang in the balance against the Russian side.

City manager Manuel Pellegrini is almost certainly going to persist in playing two strikers despite accumulating evidence that City's Champions League performances with a 4-4-2 formation have yielded too few goals to account for the yawning gaps Pellegrini's preferred shape leaves in the midfield.

Actually, it is not merely City's Champions League record under Pellegrini that indicts his ongoing persistence in pairing Aguero with another striker. City were never in control against United until Chris Smalling left the match early; before that, City were winless in their three prior matches.

One of those losses came to Sam Allardyce's West Ham United, and Big Sam took the opportunity to deride Pellegrini's tactics in the wake of that match.

“There are two types of coaches. There’s coaches like me who weigh up the opposition and ask the team to adjust," Allardyce said according to Henry Winter in The Telegraph. "There’s Manuel Pellegrini, who looks like he won’t adjust, even in the Champions League. He seems to favour what he’s got. City are quite open," Allardyce continued.

Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

Talk about selection bias. City weren't too open against Allardyce's club last season when City played West Ham four times, won four times and outscored the Hammers 14-1 on aggregate, were they?

Regardless, until Pellegrini and City win a Champions League match this season, the chorus of voices echoing the weakness of Pellegrini's tactics will not be silent. Against AS Roma at the Etihad, City's "opening period made Pellegrini’s decision to play 4-4-2 seem naive and outdated," said John Dillon in the Express.

Scribes are after Pellegrini, to be sure, but Toure's Champions League record is also a sore point for City.

"Toure's failure to turn up in crucial Champions League ties has become the unwanted storyline of his Manchester City career," Jamie Jackson wrote in The Guardian in September.

Be it through scoring goals or through creating them, Toure is under significant pressure to deliver a winning performance against CSKA Moscow.

Toure's splendid pass to Clichy against United reminded City of just how gifted the big Ivorian is.

Hopefully, Toure's performance against CSKA Moscow at midweek will not be forgettable.