Sergio Aguer-no?

How do you solve a problem like Sergio Aguero?

I’m going to start this week by pondering the future of Aguero in my team, and hope to see your opinions in the comments at the bottom. Another scoreless week for Aguero as captain, and to add insult to injury he picked up a silly booking, making his score for the last 2 matches a net of -1. Aguero has now failed to score in his last 3 in the League, not exactly the returns we’re used to, or likely to expect at 13m. The more worrying thing for me though, isn’t necessarily the lack of points – all players go through rough spells, but the manner of the last 3 performances, or 4 if you include the CL tie against Barcelona. It seems fairly clear that Guardiola doesn’t hold him in as high regard as previous City managers. Guardiola isn’t a manager that takes prisoners, players like Thierry Henry will attest to that – you work for the Guardiola system, the system doesn’t work for you. And whilst Aguero is unquestionably the best number 9 in the league, that won’t necessarily guarantee him the role that he wants in the team. Aguero also looked worryingly off the pace against Southampton, something that simply won’t fly under Pep.

For what it’s worth I still think Aguero will be one of the first names on the team sheet at City in most games, but it wouldn’t exactly be surprising to see him benched in favour of a false 9 or for Iheanacho at times. There is also the issue of captaincy, in the past he’d be almost a cert for most people, but I think with doubt creeping in many may look elsewhere.For example this week, Alexis Sanchez is surely a more appealing option away at Sunderland, than Aguero at West Brom?

Depending on how this weekend goes surely everybody will be on Aguero next Saturday at home to Middlesbrough – I won’t be selling……for now.

Gameweek Review

Gameweek points: 47
Season points: 673
Overall rank: down to 253

It was another disappointing gameweek on the captaincy front, Alexis Sanchez had his chances on Saturday against Boro but ultimately returned nothing, and as above, fortunes didn’t improve with Aguero on Sunday. I’m now 0/5 captains since I started writing this blog…

I opted against selling Petr Cech and that proved fruitful with him getting a clean sheet. In order to fund Capoue –> Walcott I brought in Daniels for Fuchs, so a clean sheet for Daniels was very welcome. Jose Holebas made it 3/4 clean sheets for my defence, so Saturday wasn’t a total disasater.

As of Sunday morning I was very happy with my front 7, they look primed for points going forward. My head was turned somewhat by Hazard on Sunday though, he’s clearly enjoying being allowed some freedom in Conte’s 5-3-2 and given he’s such a MoM magnet I’m now pondering bringing him back in. City’s lack of goals is now a serious concern, in an ideal world I would bring Hazard in for Sterling but unfortunately I’m just short on funds for that move. I’ll leave it for this week I think, despite my magnificent 7 only delivering 1 measly assist between them. I think it could get messy if I keep chopping & changing the midfield, so many players are performing at the moment, we can’t have them all – and I don’t want to dip below 25 transfers before Xmas unless I absolutely have to.

Captain Plan

Alexis Sanchez will again be my Saturday captain, there are a few other strong options on Saturday, but I think Sanchez away at a dire Sunderland side is primed for points, Sunderland will be under pressure from their fans to perform so I don’t think they’ll be sat back looking for a 0-0. They’ve also had 24 hours less rest than Arsenal – who had the chance to rest 7/8 key players in midweek so I can only see this game going one way…

Sunday is a bit less clear. My two options at the moment are Gueye at home to West Ham and Dusan Tadic at home to Chelsea. Both are solid options who have flirted with big scores. Gueye is probably the safer option, I’d expect him to pick up at least passing bonus & probably tackling. Tadic would need to get a goal to better that, if he does I’m sure the MoM award won’t be far away, Southampton are in very good form. One for me to make a judgment call on Sunday morning, however if Sanchez fails to deliver again on Saturday I’m sure my finger will be itching over a switch to either Lukaku or Hazard (c) – I’d rather I wasn’t left in this position! I’ll be ignoring Monday nights game, whilst I aim to have a captain every match day there will be rare exceptions – this being one of them. 

What moves have you got lined up? Is Hazard now a must-have as we was at the start of the season?