The Ivorian is expected to start against the Toffees in Wednesday night's Capital One Cup semi-final first leg at Goodison Park.
Manuel Pellegrini will ask Yaya Toure to dig deep again for Wednesday night's Capital One Cup semi-final first leg against Everton .
The Ivorian is likely to deployed in a three-man midfield by Manchester City manager Pellegrini at Goodison Park.
Toure has taken flak from pundits and some fans this season, but answered his critics with three goals in his last four games, reports the Manchester Evening News.
And Pellegrini has re-affirmed the importance of his stand-in captain to the way City play – and says the statistics also make liars of the critics.
In pictures - Watford 1-2 Manchester City:
Toure rarely gets a rest, but that is partly because he wants to play in every game, and Pellegrini recognises his crucial role – it is no coincidence that City's worst performance of the season, at Stoke, came with him injured.
“I think that every player must always want to play every game,” said Pellegrini. “That’s a good mentality. Yaya always tries to play.
“Maybe for the amount of games we must play, it’s not good for him to play every game. But I’m very happy with the mentality of those players that they are always ready to play.
Toure feels he has been unfairly judged on his goalscoring since he bagged 23 during the Blues' title-winning season in 2013-14.
Key player: Manuel Pellegrini celebrates with Toure after a game
Pellegrini agrees there is much more to the midfielder's game: “He’s not only scoring important goals. He’s scored important goals in the last few games, but I think that Yaya gives very good play to our team.
“He’s the midfielder from where we have the most amount of passes to make the last decisive pass, so I think he’s a very important player.
“A lot of media criticise his body language and the way he runs, but if you see all the statistics of Yaya after every game, he’s the one player that runs more.”
City's only new injury problem for the first leg at Goodison is Wilfried Bony, who should be back in time for the FA Cup third round tie at Norwich on Saturday. Vincent Kompany and Samir Nasri are also ruled out.
The Blues have the luxury of being able to counter-attack in the first leg, with the onus on Everton to seize the initiative in their home leg.
And that led Pellegrini to say: “It's a test like a Champions League game.
“Maybe it's different because in the Champions League it is more important to score away - here it is slightly different because there is extra time. But it's a similar test to the Champions League.”
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