BARCELONA -- Vincent Kompany didn't make the substitutes' bench for Manchester City's Champions League clash with Barcelona despite being able to play.
Kompany travelled with the first-team squad but wasn't in the team or among the subs for Wednesday's 4-0 defeat at the Nou Camp.
The City captain was used a makeshift striker in Saturday's 1-1 draw with Everton but was left out of the 18 for Barca, with young full-back Pablo Maffeo on the bench instead.
Kompany has just played twice this season -- his other appearance saw him start the EFL Cup victory over Swansea on Sept. 21 after recovering from a thigh strain picked up at the end of last season that ruled him out for four months.
However, the 30-year-old, who has been dogged by injury problems for the past two seasons, left the pitch early with a groin injury and only returned to the squad on Saturday.
His Belgium and City teammate Kevin De Bruyne told reporters that Kompany was available for the game against Barca but said City boss Pep Guardiola decided to leave him out of his 18-man squad.
"That's Pep's choice -- he must have had his reasons," De Bruyne said.
Guardiola also made another selection surprise when he decided to leave striker Sergio Aguero on the bench with De Bruyne playing in a more attacking role.
The City boss told a news conference it was a tactical decision rather than anything to do with Aguero's recent adductor problem while he was away with Argentina.
De Bruyne admitted it took him some time to get used to a new role although City caused Barca plenty of problems before Claudio Bravo's sending off in the second half.
"I'm not used to playing it," he added. "I did it a couple of times.
"It was difficult in the beginning because they are a good team but I think we pressed good -- even a team like Barca had to play a lot of long balls and shoot the ball out.
"Obviously it's not my best position but I'll do what the coach asks me to do and do my job.
"I don't think we played a bad game. We know what people are going to say, that we were bad, that we didn't create anything, but I think people feel differently.
"Obviously if you lose 4-0 it's bad but I think the way we want to play is the good way, even a good team like Barcelona didn't have it so easy as people thought."