Toure laments absence from City for African Cup

Posted Tuesday, November 08, 2011 by YAHOO Sport

LONDON (AP)—Despite his pride at representing the Ivory Coast at the African Cup of Nations, the tournament could hardly come at a worse time for Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure.

City’s expensively assembled squad is trying to clinch the club’s first English championship since 1968, but Toure could miss about a half dozen Premier League matches if his country makes it to the final of the Jan. 21-Feb. 11 competition.

With Toure a driving force for the Premier League leaders, the scheduling of the tournament in the middle of the European season could seriously hamper the club’s momentum.

“It’s a very big problem because your mind is with your club,” Toure said Monday. “You want to try and help your club but you have to go away and do other things with your country. We don’t have any option.

“If you stay with your club and don’t play with your national team, you get suspended. You have to go and help your country. It’s difficult.”

Toure’s importance to the side was illustrated at the end of last season when he scored the winning goal in both the semifinal and final of the FA Cup to clinch City’s first major trophy since 1976.

The team has improved further this season, scoring 39 goals in 11 matches to head the Premier League by five points from defending champion Manchester City.

Toure said the improvement can be attributed to the players’ greater familiarity with each other’s game as they spend more time together.

“The communication between the players is so important,” Toure said. “Now it’s a year that we have lived together, and although some players are new, it is amazing the way we have developed in the defense and in the middle.

“You have to know each other a long time. When you see the big teams like United, Chelsea or Barcelona, they don’t change these areas a lot: you need to have the confidence there.”

Toure said the players had drawn strength from the knowledge that the team was no longer reliant upon Argentina striker Carlos Tevez.

Tevez was the club’s central player over the past two seasons but agitated for a transfer in January and the offseason before angering manager Roberto Mancini in September by apparently refusing to come on as a substitute against Bayern Munich in the Champions League.

He was fined and suspended for two weeks, and has not featured for the team since. Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko have taken over his scoring duties with apparent ease—racking up 19 Premier League goals between them.

“Yes I think so, it was the turning point,” Toure said. “We still don’t know properly what was behind that, but I think the most important thing was that the team took the opportunity to grow up.”