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Manuel Pellegrini has, in one team selection, shown that there is real steel beneath that deadpan demeanour.

The bold decision to drop Vincent Kompany to the bench, and exile £55million-worth of talent – in Fernandinho and Samir Nasri – to the stands, took everyone by surprise as they rolled up at the Etihad Stadium for the Leicester game.

Pellegrini's man-management has drawn a lot of praise in his career. His former Malaga midfielder Isco, now of Real Madrid, said he was the kind of man for whom you might go to war.

That has never been evident from Pellegrini's public face since he came to England – he comes across as a little dour and unremarkable.

But there is much more to him than that, and he is now showing that man management is not just about lifting confidence, soothing fears and massaging egos.

It can also come down to recognising when a player needs a spell out of the team, and when they need a kick in the pants.

His handling of such matters first came to our attention last season, when Joe Hart was going through a tough spell.

Hart was never a big fan of Pellegrini's predecessor Roberto Mancini, who repeatedly tore strips off his players in the public domain, and was often curiously reluctant to praise certain individuals even when they patently deserved it, while others were talked up when they maybe did not deserve it.

Indeed, part of Pellegrini's brief on taking the job was to soothe the strife in the camp that saw the 2012-13 season dissolve into fractious discontent, as United ran away with the title and the Blues headed for a dismal FA Cup final.

What Pellegrini did on Wednesday night was to act positively in a bid to stop this season going the same way.

There was a feeling that some players “downed tools” on Mancini. He had lost a significant portion of the dressing room, and was not popular among many of his support staff at Carrington.

Pellegrini does not have those problems, but by acting with such boldness, he laid it on the line that he will not tolerate any slacking off – not while there is still plenty for which to play this season.

The sight of Kompany's name among the substitutes was sensational at the time, and was the subject of most of the pre-match chatter.

But in the cold light of the following day, it was not such a huge deal.

Ideally, you do not want someone playing three games in a week, and Kompany had turned out against Barcelona and Liverpool – and had a poor game in both.

The fact he was on the bench made it feel more like he was being taken out of the firing line, just as Hart was last season.

On that occasion, there were no histrionics from the England keeper, no stories leaking out about his unhappiness, or dark hints about the next transfer window.

Pellegrini explained the situation to Hart, and his reasons were accepted, even if the keeper was clearly unhappy to be left out. A problem would have arisen had Hart NOT been unhappy about it.

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Kompany's demotion is clearly temporary, and he is smart enough to know that it was the correct decision.

In some ways, the banishing of Nasri and Fernandinho is more significant. That does have the feeling of a wake-up call.

Fernandinho's sloppy pass was as culpable for Liverpool's first goal at the weekend as Kompany's hesitancy, while the enduring image of Nasri at Anfield was of him being dispossessed too easily, and not working back enough.

In the past, this slap might have induced a sulk, but Nasri is more mature these days, more self-aware, and should react in the correct way.

City now have more than a week before they go to Burnley for their next league game – and the fact that Kompany, Fernandinho and Nasri have all been cut from the team will not have escaped anybody's notice.