Man City boss Mancini confident Vieira still has the legs

Roberto Mancini has no doubts that Patrick Vieira can still help Manchester City.

A month after his arrival from Inter Milan, the 33 year old is set to make his Blues debut at Hull on Saturday.

The calf injury Vieira sustained in his final game for Inter proved more difficult to recover from than Mancini first thought.

"I don't think so," countered Mancini.

"I know Patrick wants to go to the World Cup and for this reason alone I feel he can be very important for us over the next three or four months.

"He is a big player, both on the pitch and in the mind.

"We lost two games recently, against Everton and Manchester United. They were both very different games and at Everton I felt we were tired.

"But Patrick is so experienced maybe we would not have lost those games if he had been in the team."

 
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