sortiwa
[ad_1]
Pep Guardiola said he does not need to buy a replacement for Gabriel Jesus and Sergio Agüero despite Manchester City’s poor goal return this season.
After 12 Premier League matches City have scored only 18 times, well below their return at the same stage of each of the past three campaigns. Last term the count at this stage was 35, two years ago 36 and three years ago 38.
Guardiola was asked whether there may come a time when he has to sign a striker. “Absolutely not,” the manager said. “The last 32 or 33 games we played, Sergio played four or five [because of injury] – so not much. Gabriel has incredible numbers; in terms of goals to minutes since he came to the Premier League, he is one of the top three or four in history.”
Agüero’s goal every 108 minutes is a competition record, and Jesus’s ratio of one every 140 minutes places him eighth on the all-time list. Of Jesus, Guardiola said: “He is a guy who scores goals but it is not just on his shoulders. We took 13 corners in the last game [1-1 against West Brom]. The central defenders can score too – anyone can score. They all have responsibility. Everybody is involved to try and win the game.
“They are not lacking confidence, they have incredible personalities, talent. We have to be positive, aggressive, show no fear and try to score. We have to insist, insist and insist [keep trying]: there’s no other way. If 25 shots is not enough, we need to create more chances.
“We have to be positive, one day [the damn] will break. Be aggressive, put more players there. Compared to the last three seasons, we have to score more. Last season we were the team who scored most, even more than the champions [Liverpool] but unfortunately we conceded too many.”
Agüero made a 14-minute substitute appearance against West Brom but was unable to train until Friday, making him a doubt for Saturday’s trip to Southampton.
“After the game he could not train,” Guardiola said. “Yesterday [Thursday] no training, today he trained really well, but I don’t know how many minutes he can play. It’s important he makes training sessions but after the game he could not. It wasn’t the knee, it was another area.”
[ad_2]
Source link