Vieira up to task - Mancini

Published: 05 Feb 2010 - 13:16:06

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Roberto Mancini has dismissed the theory that Patrick Vieira's legs have gone - and insisted the Frenchman's World Cup dream can propel Manchester City into the Champions League.A month after his arrival from Inter Milan, Vieira is set to make his Blues debut at Hull.The calf injury Vieira sustained in his final game for Inter proved more difficult to recover from than Mancini first thought.In the meantime, City have encountered two games - at Everton and Manchester United - that proved exactly why Mancini wanted to be reunited with the 33-year-old despite all the doubters who claim Vieira is a spent force."I don't think so," countered Mancini. "I know Patrick wants to go to the World Cup and for this reason alone I feel he can be very important for us over the next three or four months. He is a big player, both on the pitch and in the mind."We lost two games recently, against Everton and Manchester United. They were both very different games and at Everton I felt we were tired. But Patrick is so experienced maybe we would not have lost those games if he had been in the team."