Wigan Athletic vs Manchester City preview - City need to win titles to be great - Martinez
Posted Monday, January 16, 2012 by PA
Manchester City cannot be considered a great side until they have a cabinet full of trophies, Wigan boss Roberto Martinez has claimed.
City visit the DW Stadium on Monday night and though Martinez says they are title favourites, they are still a way off the likes of Barcelona.
Martinez said: "As a team what measures you as a good or a bad team is achieving things and winning titles.
"What Manchester City has done has been phenomenal. I know money has been important but to get a team out of the individuals is where the difficulty lies.
"They can win any competition they go into, and they have done a remarkable job but only time will tell how good they can be.
"Barcelona probably five years ago were in a similar situation, showing good signs.
"But you can only be measured as a great side when you win titles and that's probably the exciting times ahead for Manchester City because they are showing they have everything in place to win trophies."
Martinez has midfielder Mohamed Diame absent on African Nations Cup duty with Senegal but winger Albert Crusat is back in contention after a couple of weeks out with a back injury.
Young striker Callum McManaman could be on the bench after impressing in the FA Cup defeat at Swindon.
Meanwhile, Manchester City assistant boss David Platt does not believe there will be a change of philosophy from Wigan even though the Latics have been dumped back to the foot of the Barclays Premier League.
After claiming an encouraging 10 points from an eight-game run that included fixtures against Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool, a woeful home defeat by Sunderland brought an air of gloom to Wigan once more.
Since then, both Bolton and Blackburn have managed victories so Martinez's men are rock bottom again as they prepare to entertain the Premier League leaders tomorrow.
Yet Platt knows Martinez too well to believe the Spaniard will be panicked into changing a free-flowing style that has served him so well throughout his managerial career.
"Wigan play football and they won't go away from that," he said.
"They had a very bad run that has seen them involved in a relegation battle but Roberto Martinez has his own style and he will stick to his philosophies."
With skipper Vincent Kompany serving the second game of his four-match ban and Kolo Toure on African Nations Cup duty with the Ivory Coast, 21-year-old Montenegro international Stefan Savic is set to continue in central defence.
Samir Nasri would hope to have more involvement too as City look to emerge from a run of just one win in their last five games, which has seen their prowess in front of goal drastically curtailed.
Not that Platt is fazed by that.
Victory will take City three points clear of Manchester United and five ahead of Tottenham and his own experience of title-winning campaigns will ensure he does not lose focus on the overall goal.
"It's an obvious thing to say, but to win it, you need to get more points than the others," he said.
"In our position that means not getting less than two points fewer than the others.
"That will be achieved by winning football matches. Everything else is irrelevant."
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