I'm more annoyed that people keep talking about Pique like he is world class.
His game hasn't kicked on as much as people would have you believe. The difference is, he plays for a club side who completely dominate possession and he plays for an international side who play the same way. Barcelona and Spain are very rarely on the back foot, and he's rarely under any kind of pressure. He's certainly never under any sustained pressure.
On the odd time that they are, Pique's decision making is often fairly poor, as are his concentration levels. What he does have is very good technical ability, and this seems to lead to people over-rating him quite drastically.
Defensively he is good, but like most defenders, he is good within a certain system. Take him out of that system and holes will start to appear in his game.
Another player who pundits go over the top with is Vermaelen at Arsenal. The fact that he scores a lot of goals, glosses over the fact that positionally he is pretty poor. Again his concentration isn't the greatest. I think City made a point out of this for the 3 goals we scored in the 2nd half of the 4-2 win over Arsenal. Other good sides have also made a point of nailing Arsenal on the counter attack.
As for Kompany, City fans probably do over-rate him slightly, but he is only just starting to get recognition from pundits and the media. We've conceded 2 goals in 9 games. 1 being a penalty for a foul on a guy who was offside, and the other being a bit of a goalkeeping blunder. Kompany and Toure are working very well within our system, and part of that is due to us dominating possession in most games.
The good thing is, we know Kompany and Toure are solid even when teams throw the kitchen sink at us. I wouldn't be so sure about saying the same thing about Pique, or John Terry. Maybe Terry would have relished that sort of game 3 or 4 years ago, but not so much now.
On a side note, we shouldn't under-estimate Mancini's part in turning a defensive shambles, into one of the best defences in the league.