Mills bemoans lack of strength in depth

Danny Mills has admitted Manchester City are paying the price for a lack of competition for places this season.

Sunday’s Manchester derby defeat at Eastlands means the Blues are almost certain to miss out on a European slot next term.

With 11 games of the campaign remaining, Kevin Keegan’s side are in 11th spot, seven points behind Bolton, whose seventh position would be enough to qualify them for Europe provided the FA Cup final was contested by two members of the top six.

Even though the 2-0 reverse to United completed City’s encounters with the Premiership title chasers this term, they still have tough trips to Charlton and Tottenham to come, plus home encounters with Bolton and Liverpool.

So, while Mills is not admitting defeat in the UEFA Cup quest yet, he does accept the lack of depth in City’s wafer-thin squad has counted against them.

“It would be nice if there were competition for places,” said the combative former England full-back.

“That would help to raise everybody’s standards.

“This is a small squad and we have also had to cope with some horrific injuries, which has been very unfortunate for the players involved.

“But we have to get on with what we have got and hopefully we can push a bit further up the table.”

Senior squad men Claudio Reyna, Jihai Sun and Trevor Sinclair have managed just 17 appearances between them this term after being struck down by season-threatening injuries.

While Sun and Sinclair will not be seen again until the summer after cruciate operations, at least Reyna is ready to make his comeback from groin surgery.

The USA skipper will play for City’s second string against Middlesbrough tomorrow night and providing he comes through his re-appearance unscathed will be part of the squad for the televised trip to Norwich on February 28.

Mills has thankfully stayed injury free since joining the Blues from Leeds last summer.

The 27-year-old has missed just two games this term, both through suspension, and it would be a major surprise if he was not to keep his place against the relegation-threatened Canaries, his first senior club.

But while he has been delighted to make a significant impact in his first season at Eastlands, Mills admits City’s notorious inconsistency has caused immense irritation.

“Frustrating would be a good word to describe it,” he said.

“If you look back, we have taken four points off Chelsea and one off West Brom. That is a bit difficult to take.

“I would be a lot happier if we could get some consistency into our play. If we had done better against the teams around us and below us, we would be much further up the league.

“But it is easy to look at the negatives and what we haven’t done.

“We are still 11th in the table and if we could spring a few results together we might climb to eighth or even higher and I think generally everyone would be happy with that.”