Neither Agüero, nor Gabriel Jesus, nor Delap. When trying to look for trouble within the City, the last thing you think about is attack, until now. The rearguard has always been the greatest must citizen since Guardiola landed at Manchester Airport on a flight from Munich. A problem accentuated last season that has made him invest the rooms in the center of defense, Rùben Dias (68 million euros to Benfica) and Nathan Aké (45 to Bournemouth) through. However, Santpedor's would have liked to add a third striker to his squad to complement and replace, if necessary, Gabriel Jesus and Agüero. Faced with the economic impossibility of undertaking another great operation, Liam Delap, the youth squad and son of Rory (the one with the throw-ins), has occupied that place so far. Now, once the market is closed and the Argentine and Brazilian injuries are confirmed, the problem comes to the surface.
A month without Agüero
The 17-year-old (whose debut impressed) is not registered neither in list A, nor in list B of the set skyblue in the Champions League, so the Spanish coach will have to innovate and make use of some 'false nine' in his match this Tuesday against Olympique de Marseille (9:00 p.m., Movistar Champions League). Gabriel Jesús could only play the first game of the Mancunian season, against Wolverhampton, in which he scored one of the three goals that gave them victory (1-3). From there, the desert. While he Kun, who accumulated three consecutive starts after a knee injury, fell again to West Ham (1-1) in the last league match, leaving Pep and City with the powder completely wet for the maximum continental competition.
The Spanish coach lamented At a press conference after learning about the Buenos Aires accident: “With Sergio's injury, it is a minimum of 10 or 15 days. If it is a little longer, it will be three weeks or a month. Muscle muscles do not usually leave those parameters. Sergio it will be the same, there are no exceptions. ” Just as it does not consider that an overload of minutes has been the cause of the new physical problem: “We were incredibly patient. We didn't force him. Unfortunately, he was unlucky in a one-off action.”.
In addition, he left a statistical data that reminds that this season is far from the old normality and that it is worrying: “We all get the statistic that says we have 47 percent more muscle injuries in the Premier League than in the same period last year. It's not just the City. November, December and January will arrive in a few months and I think it will be the same. The strong will survive, the others will fall. “
Sterling or Mahrez, the patches
The rest of the attack front will have to step forward in the absence of a center forward. Against Leicester and Burnley, Sterling occupied the position of 'false nine' and against Leeds it was Riyad Mahrez who was in charge of spearhead. The usually English winger did not get wet in the defeat against the Foxes (2-5), but he did achieve a double in the 0-3 endorsed to the Clarets by Sean Dyche. The Algerian, for his part, failed to have a direct impact on the 1-1 against those of Bielsa. We will see who is the chosen one finally by Guardiola and if, in the next winter market, they decide to venture to hire a third striker or if, on the contrary, they definitively register Delap and place responsibility on the youth squad's shoulders attacker in extreme situations like the one that will be experienced against Marseille.