Kolo Toure has switched from celebration to consternation as City's skipper joins up with his Ivory Coast team-mates nursing early worries about their World Cup campaign.

The Blues centre-half, on the bench for the 4-2 win at Stamford Bridge, has stayed in West London for his troubled national team's friendly with South Korea at QPR on Wednesday night.

But the squad that under-achieved so spectacularly at the African Nations Cup in Angola is now without a coach after Bosnian Vahid Halilhodzic was fired on Saturday night.

Ivory Coast, who complete their World Cup finals group against North Korea in June, were among the favourites in Angola but were denied even a semi-final place by a 3-2 defeat against Algeria.

Kolo said: "We didn't play very well at the African Nations. We were expected to reach the final but we were knocked out in the quarters. We knew that there would be changes.

"When we go back home it's hard for us to mix together as a team. We are spread all around the world and when we meet up we don't have a style of play for the team.

"We have some very good players but we can find it hard to play as a team. I think that comes from the manager and not the players, so we need to find a manager who will make us gel."

Staging the game at Loftus Road at least means centre-half Toure will return from the midweek international relatively fresh, albeit with no match duties to perform on FA Cup weekend.

He said: "We have a lot of players playing over here and in Europe, so it makes sense to play in England. It will be good for us.

"It's going to be an important game for us. We have a few things to resolve before the World Cup and there's a lot going on, so it is a difficult situation."