Setting out Manuel Pellegrini's Best Man City Defensive Setup for Rest of Season

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has worked around injuries throughout his club this season, but perhaps the most remarkable triage work he has done so far has been with his back line.

City are still coping with seemingly arbitrary Financial Fair Play restrictions to their transfer budget. So Pellegrini could not do this past summer what he did in the summer of 2013, i.e., significantly upgrade several positions at the same time.

Pellegrini had to take the available money and plug City's biggest hole. Anyone who watched Martin Demichelis try to stay with Lionel Messi last February knew where Pellegrini needed to spend the money.

City spent months in pursuit of Eliaquim Mangala to ultimately have the privilege of spending the vast majority of their approved transfer funds on one player.

For £30 million, Pellegrini might fairly have assumed that Mangala would arrive and coalesce with fellow centre-back (and team captain) Vincent Kompany right away.

Well, not exactly.

Mangala was not fit to play until late September, when City welcomed Chelsea to the Etihad. That went well enough, but it did not take long thereafter for Mangala to struggle mightily.

"A September debut at home in a 1-1 draw with Chelsea passed without much trouble," wrote Ian Ladyman for the Daily Mail. "Next up, though, was a trip to Hull City and suddenly somebody turned on the spin cycle. An own goal, a penalty conceded and a yellow card in one afternoon."

As a result, Pellegrini did not start Mangala in City's Champions League Group E matches at the Etihad with AS Roma or CSKA Moscow. City pulled one point from those two matches.

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From there, though, the story of Mangala's first season at City has re-tracked toward a happy ending. City have won the last six matches Mangala has started, including the Group E wins over Bayern Munich and AS Roma that secured City's passage to the Champions League's knockout round.

By now you have surmised that Mangala is an indispensable piece of City's defensive puzzle. So is Kompany, if he ever gets fit.

That leaves Pellegrini with questions at right-back and at left-back. One of those questions has an easy answer. The other does not.

Bacary Sagna was brought in to challenge Pablo Zabaleta at right-back. Such is Zabaleta's lock on that position, though, that Sagna recently volunteered to slot in at centre-back in hopes of a. helping the team and b. getting a rare chance to play at all.

Zabaleta is currently playing the best football he has all season, scoring at AS Roma in City's group-stage clincher and at Sunderland earlier this month. Zabaleta needs to stay in the XI.

As for the left-back position, Aleksandar Kolarov's injury troubles earlier this season gave Gael Clichy an unexpected chance to reclaim his job. Even more unexpectedly, Clichy seized the opportunity with both hands.

Clichy has started 23 matches in all competitions for City, which ties him with the indispensable Yaya Toure for most starts this season.

Until further notice, then, the back line of Clichy, Mangala, Kompany and Zabaleta is the one that Pellegrini needs to select against superior opposition. There should be enough FA Cup matches and home fixtures against Burnley, Leicester City and Hull City to keep Sagna, Kolarov and Demichelis active.

Besides, if City continue to struggle with injuries the way they have, no one on the roster can be entirely written off.

Well, except for Matija Nastasic, I guess.