Bacary Sagna urges Man City fans to keep faith with Eliaquim Mangala

Bacary Sagna has urged Manchester City fans to keep faith with France international Eliaquim Mangala, insisting he can still come good at the Etihad Stadium.

Vincent Kompany's ongoing injury problems have turned the focus onto Mangala at the heart of the defence as City have struggled to fill the gap left by their influential captain.

Mangala became British football's most expensive defender when he signed from Porto for £32m in August 2014. He has struggled for consistency but Sagna is adamant his team-mate can yet become one of the best in the Premier League.

He told The Guardian: "The big difference between him and myself was that he was bought for quite a lot of money, so people will expect him to be above everyone - but he's still a human being. He can make mistakes but he can do well and I am sure he is going to do even better.

"It's not easy. I want to remind everyone that to come and play in this league is not easy at all. I had a chance to come and it was different for me. I came at the same age, 24, and from the first season I had, everything went well.

"Now we have a setback with him but he started the season very well and we didn't concede any goals. But when times are a bit harder, the first ones to blame are the defenders.

"I've been blamed, he has been blamed but that's football. We have to deal with it, we have to learn. He's doing his maximum to improve.

"He wants to get better. No matter what we try to communicate, even after games, we try to analyse when we concede goals what he should have done a bit better, what I should have done a bit better. We try to analyse to improve."