Pep Guardiola will have left Anfield on Tuesday with a lot on his mind. After witnessing Liverpool come from behind to beat Stoke City 4-1 to leapfrog Manchester City into second place ahead of his side’s visit to the same stadium, the threat of the highest-scoring side in the Premier League hitting top form ahead of such a crucial game will have the Spaniard worried.
City have shown glaring defensive weaknesses at times, but their manager will take solace from having Sergio Aguero back in his selection to help pile the pressure on Jurgen Klopp’s men at the other end.
After serving a four-game suspension, the return of a player with 16 goals in 19 games comes as a sizeable boost heading into a crucial encounter against a side just one point ahead of them. However, Aguero’s record at Anfield gives little reason for enthusiasm - he's failed to score in four Premier League encounters there, which adds further concern to City’s dismal history, having enjoyed just one win away to Liverpool in the Premier League era – beating them 2-1 in April 2003.
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To add to City’s concerns, Klopp will have a plan for the returning Argentine, and this should worry Guardiola and Aguero. “I always thought that he is quite a talented boy,” the bombastic boss said this week. “Now he is back in the team with a lot of other really good players, that makes life not easier for us.“He can only score goals if somebody gives him the ball. We have to avoid the easy passes, I would say. Probably we cannot cut out each pass into his area, but the easy ones we should avoid and we are able to defend really well.”
Liverpool, alongside Everton, may have conceded more goals than any other team in the top eight, but Klopp is correct about his last point. The Reds defensive system has its clear strengths, evident in the fact no team concedes fewer shots than they do.
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The prowess of Aguero, though, a player who can terrify the best of defenders, cannot be overstated and he should fancy his chances coming up against the likes of Dejan Lovren and Ragnar Klavan.Even if Liverpool fail to starve Aguero of the ball, they can still recover. He may be an immense, unpredictable threat, but he creates very little for others. If the home side can manipulate his position and put him under pressure, they can keep him relatively quiet.
If Klopp’s men do manage to stifle Aguero, it could encourage Guardiola to start looking at new solutions. While he defended the attacker after the reckless challenge on David Luiz that saw him receive a four game ban - one so severe because of his previous retrospective suspension for elbowing West Ham’s Winston Reid - but such dangerous audacity will not be accepted by the Catalan coach.
Especially as City did not miss him throughout his absence.
They only failed to win one game during that period – a 4-2 defeat to Leicester City, and that had very little to do with the lack of Aguero. The quality of opponents in that run may not have been great, but they dealt admirably with the sizeable challenge of Arsenal, just as they did against an in-form Manchester United during his previous ban. Furthermore, his presence was hardly felt in losses to Chelsea and Tottenham earlier this season. The recent game against Hull raised some serious concerns, but they got there in the end with a new system, as Raheem Sterling and Kelechi Iheanacho showed they can be decisive.
It’s impossible to discount the highest scoring Premier League player in 2016, but Guardiola is a fan of versatile systems and the other options he has up front offer the chance to build a more flexible one.
Kevin De Bruyne is a creative machine who can play in a number of positions and can add more goals to his game than he has shown this term, while Nolito has shown his potency despite limited starts.
The impending arrival of Gabriel Jesus in January adds further competition. The 19-year-old is tipped to reach great heights and the early signs are immense. A consistent goalscorer in Brazil, he is doing it against the big teams for Palmeiras, while his international career has got off to a wonderful start with five goals in six games. He has taken pressure off Neymar for the Selecao and some have predicted he will even surpass the Barcelona star. That he has excellent movement and is versatile makes him a player likely to excel under Guardiola regardless of the system he employs.
The biggest challenge, though, might be Iheanacho. The 20-year-old is devastatingly effective. Aguero has played almost three times as many minutes as the Nigeria international, but the latter has created more chances and has scored four goals and set up three more in the league. His goals-to-minutes ratio is incredible.
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The likes of Iheanacho and Gabriel Jesus may be young and still unproven, but it is clear Guardiola has a lot to work with. The prospect of Aguero being cast aside at the Etihad Stadium has already been raised this season and while the manager insists he has no desire to get rid, his disciplinary issues are concerning. If the trend grows, Guardiola’s patience will decline at a greater rate.Liverpool represents a huge challenge for City and the result could have a say in their battle for the Premier League title. They have not missed him in any big games this season – he has failed to score against any team that has been in the top half when coming up against them. Even worse, he has failed to create anything when so easily handled, to the detriment of his team.
Now, Sergio Aguero has to prove that he can still guide Guardiola’s men over the line in the big games, starting with breaking his and City’s curse at Anfield.
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