Eliaquim Mangala has addressed his poor first half of the season, and promises that Manchester City will see improvements from him.

In an interview this week , Eliaquim Mangala said that:

“I’m not worried, my first season at Porto was also difficult. I didn’t play so much and I had to adapt but, after that, things just clicked into place. It’ll be the same thing in Manchester.”

Much is made of the change in playing style and attitudes in when players come to the Premier League for the first time. Physicality is one of the major aspects, and you would think that a player like Mangala will be able to adapt to this fairly quickly. It has been his decision making that is most worrisome for City this season, and this may take longer to fix.

At Manchester City Mangala has been given a fair amount of playing time, but despite flashes he is yet to show his full capabilities in the Premier League. It is perhaps unfortunate that he is coming through at a time when Vincent Kompany has been having a few dips in form himself.

If Eliaquim Mangala was able to form a solid, dependable partnership with Kompany over the space of a season or so, Manchester City would doubtless see the benefits. The problem is that at this point Manuel Pellegrini seems more prone to rotating Mangala, Dedryck Boyata and Martin Demichelis.

Eliaquim Mangala also hinted at language barriers in the dressing room, and the need to try to communicate with his teammates is surely a factor in his more unsteady performances this season.

“I’m learning English. The only problem is that, in the dressing room, I am with French players who speak French all the time so that doesn’t help me.”

You would hope that come the end of the season, Eliaquim Mangala can cement himself as first choice partner to Vincent Kompany, and maybe even inspire the same confidence as the captain does.