MX23RW : Thursday, November 7 19:42:10| >> :120:6090:6090:

Pep Guardiola: 'Man City have goals all over the pitch'

City have been without their record goalscorer Sergio Aguero for much of the season.

Pep Guardiola is confident Manchester City have the firepower to make up for a lack of goals from their frontline strikers.

City have been without their record goalscorer Sergio Aguero for much of the season, with a combination of injuries and self-isolation restricting the Argentinian to just three starts and two goals.

His natural replacement Gabriel Jesus has also been short of form and fitness this term, and has scored just six times, after injury problems of his own and a spell out with coronavirus.

Aguero has been limited to just three starts this season
Sergio Aguero has been limited to just three starts this season (Clive Brunskill/PA)

That has left manager Guardiola needing to find alternative solutions, such as deploying winger Ferran Torres as a makeshift centre-forward or playing any of a number of midfielders as a 'false nine'.

It may not be ideal but, with City currently on a club-record 12-game winning run in all competitions, the back-up plans are proving effective.

Guardiola said: "Normally when you are on top of the league or winning titles you have one or two top, top scorers. Now we don't have it and I don't know if we will have it.

"Sergio will be back hopefully soon but the numbers of Gabriel in the Premier League are not much goals.

"What will help us to still be there is the way we are going to play. If you dream that the striker is going to solve our problems, we are not going to win the games.

Ferran Torres (right) has played some games at centre forward
Ferran Torres (right) has played some games at centre-forward (Tim Keeton/PA)

"Our game, the way we play, is, in the way we defend – concede few chances, concede no goals; and the way we create – Rash (Sterling), Riyad (Mahrez), Gabriel, Bernardo (Silva), (Ilkay) Gundogan, Phil (Foden), Ferran (Torres) have the chance to score a goal. This is the way we have this season.

"We don't have a guy who dribbles through players to score a goal every day. It's difficult to find one player to score two goals in one game.

"We don't have this specific quality so we have to go as a team to play good and this is our target until the end of the season."

Another of the keys to City's success this season has been their improvement in defence.

Ruben Dias has impressed since his arrival from Benfica
Ruben Dias has impressed since his arrival from Benfica (Martin Rickett/PA)

With summer signing Ruben Dias an influential addition, City have kept clean sheets in 11 of their last 13 Premier League games.

Guardiola, who takes his team to Burnley on Wednesday, said: "The biggest difference right now is defensively, when we are in the box, we are more calm and we don't make mistakes.

"This is the biggest improvement we have done this season compared with previous seasons. The way we play, concede chances, create chances – is quite similar."

Aguero is now back in training after his quarantine but Guardiola expects it to be "a few weeks" before he returns to the side.

ID:433477: cacheID:433477:1false2false3false:QQ:: from db desktop :LenBod:restore:8347:
Restore Data
Share this article now:
Burnley manager Sean Dyche pictured on January 24, 2021
Read Next:
Sean Dyche not concerned about lack of investment in transfer market
>
rhs 2.0
Today's games header
Tables header RHS
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Liverpool108111961325
2Manchester CityMan City1072121111023
3Nottingham ForestNott'm Forest10541147719
4Chelsea105322012818
5Arsenal105321711618
6Aston Villa105321715218
7Tottenham HotspurSpurs1051422111116
8Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton104421714316
9Fulham104331413115
10Bournemouth104331312115
11Newcastle UnitedNewcastle104331010015
12Brentford104151920-113
13Manchester UnitedMan Utd10334912-312
14West Ham UnitedWest Ham103251319-611
15Leicester CityLeicester102441418-410
16Everton102351017-79
17Crystal Palace10145813-57
18Ipswich TownIpswich100551021-115
19Southampton10118719-124
20Wolverhampton WanderersWolves100371427-133


Sports Mole provides in-depth previews and predictions for every match from the biggest leagues and competitions in world football.
Argentina's Lionel Messi kisses the World Cup trophy after collecting the Golden Ball award on December 18, 2022Sign up for our FREE daily preview newsletter direct to your inbox!