Mancini selected Mario Balotelli, Carlos Tevez and Edin Dzeko for the recent encounters with Aris and Fulham. Although the policy worked against Aris as City cruised into the Europa League last 16, it did not in the Fulham encounter when Tevez and Dzeko failed to impress. Even Balotelli, who scored against the Cottagers, came in for some stinging criticism from his boss, who felt the young Italian had not worked hard enough for the team and effectively downed tools once he had found the net. With City's injury nightmare easing to the extent Micah Richards and David Silva were available for last night's FA Cup tie with Aston Villa, Mancini took the opportunity to give Tevez and Dzeko a break. Balotelli responded to the extra responsibility by bagging his 10th goal of the campaign, a magnificent half-volley after being sent through by Yaya Toure. However, Mancini is not tempted to play the 20-year-old alongside Tevez and Dzeko again until he has a full compliment of players to pick from. "At this moment I don't think we can play all three," said Mancini. "The team is too tired. "Maybe when all the players have recovered and we have more options but as it presently stands, it is important we have proper balance." It was a rare occurrence last night for Balotelli to be given a central berth. Usually the job is handed to either Tevez or Dzeko, whose size alone makes him a very useful target man. Balotelli's tendency towards economy of effort means he does not seem ideally suited to the role. But such is his immense talent that Mancini is sure when the 20-year-old gains some much-needed maturity, nothing is beyond him. "I know him, Mario. I know what he is capable of," said Mancini. "If he wanted to, he could score in every game. I wish he always played like he did against Villa because he did really well and scored a brilliant goal. "In future he could definitely play as a central striker. He would be perfect in this position, although the truth is, a player with the technique of someone like Mario could play anywhere." Now Mancini must get his thinking cap on for Saturday's Premier League encounter with rock bottom Wigan. City may not always have enjoyed the best of fortunes against the Latics but it would be a major surprise if they failed to make their additional ability tell against a team that is easy on the eye but seem to be far too easy to score against. Yet Mancini is wary. He senses his players are running on virtually empty tanks at present, so much so that he can detect subtle differences in performance depending on whether City are playing in the afternoon or evenings. "When we play at 3pm, we have nearly five hours less to prepare that we had last night. These five hours are very important," he said. To that end, Mancini must be delighted television companies have selected this weekend's encounter for Saturday evening coverage. It gives Vincent Kompany a chance to recover from the hip injury that forced him off against Fulham and also offers Nigel de Jong an outside chance of recovering from the ankle complaint that has forced him to miss City's last six games. Mancini already knows Adam Johnson will not be involved. However, the Italian is looking ahead to the beginning of March, when he expects the mercurial England winger to have recovered from his own ankle injury. "Over the past few weeks we have generally played quite well, but lost two games that we didn't deserve to, at United and Aston Villa," he added. "But during this time we had so many players injured who are very important for us. "If Vinny doesn't have a problem before Friday he could be involved against Wigan and I hope it will be the same with Nigel as well. "Adam Johnson will be missing for longer of course but maybe we will have him back after the international break."
