De Jong impressed by Man City debutants Johnson, Vieira

Manchester City midfielder Nigel de Jong was happy to see Patrick Vieira and Adam Johnson make their debuts in Saturday's defeat at Hull.

De Jong was impressed by the two January additions, who livened the Blues up after the break but smiled when he was told the Frenchman would start on Tuesday against Bolton.

“Patrick is a great player and I think that he can still be a big influence on this squad of ours because we have a lot of young guys in it. The fact that he is now injury free is a big positive for us,” he told City's website.

“I don’t like to talk about having a rest especially in this phase of the competition as we have such an important couple of weeks coming up for us. We are glad Patrick is here because the coach has more options in midfield – it doesn’t mean Gareth (Barry) or I have to drop out we could always play with three midfielders!

“As for Adam I think he did well and showed that he is a talented and promising footballer but he still needs time to settle into the side.”