Manuel Pellegrini has challenged Raheem Sterling to end his first season with Manchester City on a high as the Champions League semi-finalists travel to Southampton on Sunday.
Pellegrini will be without injured pair David Silva and Yaya Toure at St Mary's and, although the former is expected to be out for up to three weeks with a hamstring injury, the City manager has not given up hope of the latter recovering in time to face Real in the Champions League semi-final second leg next week.
But in the meantime, Sterling is back after recovering from a lay-off with a groin injury and Pellegrini has challenged the inconsistent England winger to show why City paid £49 million ($71 million) to sign him from Liverpool last year.
"The problem is that when you arrive at this stage of the Champions League, I think it's very important to arrive at your best moment, as an individual player and as a team," he said.
"It's difficult for Raheem, to arrive at his best moment after one-and-a-half months when he doesn't play.
"But I think he can give our team different options, depending on what he can do in his next game.
"Of course we bought him because he was a player who can make a difference and also because we are not just evaluating him for just one season.
"He is a very young player, he has a very important future.
"Big players can make the difference in these kind of games. Unfortunately for him, he was not 100 per cent in his best performance, before his injury."
Pellegrini takes his players to Southampton angered by the Premier League's decision to force his team to play in the last fixture of the weekend.
- Unbelievable -
City must face Southampton on the south coast in a game that kicks off at 4.30pm on Sunday to satisfy television schedules, even though the club face Real Madrid on Wednesday.
Pellegrini's club appealed to the League to be allowed to move the game to Saturday, to enjoy an additional 24 hours recovery time, but the request was rejected by the authorities, with the manager still at a loss to explain why.
"For me it is unbelievable, but if you see other leagues, including Italy, the teams that play Champions League play their domestic games on a Friday," Pellegrini said.
"So I think it's better for English football, because if you don't continue in the Champions League - and I'm not talking just about Manchester City – maybe we are going to lose a spot for the next Champions League.
"So we are representing England, but I repeat I cannot tell you more reasons because I didn't speak directly with them.
"I think it's important not to give any advantage to the other team but also you need three days to recover.
"It's not the best thing – if you can have four days to it's better, and I think the mentality should be not to give any advantage to your rivals."
Southampton manager Ronald Koeman is hoping to engineer his first victory in four meetings with City since taking charge at St Mary's Stadium.
Victory will strengthen Southampton's hopes of repeating last season's feat of qualifying for the Europa League and Koeman hopes the combination of his side's good home form, together with City's imminent trip to Madrid, can tip things in the south coast club's favour.
"We know we can be strong at home," he said. "We have had six wins out of the last eight home games.
"Maybe City have some players who are already thinking about the next Real Madrid game.
"If you can start well and aggressively and make it a tough game for them, maybe it's another reason as to how we can win the game."
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