Vincent Kompany puts his recovery from repeated injuries down to 'absolute stubbornness'

Vincent Kompany has put his recovery from multiple injuries to lift the Carabao Cup down to “absolute stubbornness”, and has put Manchester City’s successes this season down to their own “belief” in Pep Guardiola’s vision.

City are now hoping to close out the Premier League title and to make progress in the Champions League after picking up the League Cup at Wembley on Sunday. City reached the semi-finals of that competition under Manuel Pellegrini two years ago, but Kompany hopes his team can go further this year. And the Belgian says that the success the side is currently enjoying stems from the trust the squad now has in the manager’s methods.

“Belief is everything,” Kompany said. “You need to buy into it. If you don’t, there’s no way you can develop any style of game. It all relies on everyone believing in that one vision.”

Now that City have won the first trophy of the Guardiola era, they can push on for two bigger titles. Kompany said that was a “reward for having played so well”, and would encourage them to aim higher.

“This gives us the feeling that we can achieve stuff playing how we do,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to confirm with the Premier League and I’d like to see the same focus throughout the next few games. Then we’ll see.”

This has been another difficult season for Kompany, who has only played a fraction of City’s games, but he said that getting fit for the final, and playing so well in it, was a testament to his own belief and the hard work of City’s medical team.

“I’m fortunate to be at a club where I get incredible support from the medical staff,” he said. “But a lot of it is just my own doing, just absolute stubbornness. I kind of almost get enjoyment out of adversity in life. However bad it can be, I’ve always been like this. I’m kind of the wrong guy to bet against.”