Man City currently sit at the top of the Premier League table but manager Pep Guardiola has admitted that it will be hard for them to win the title without a prolific goalscorer.
Sergio Aguero’s current season has been riddled with numerous injuries while Brazilian Gabriel Jesus has also failed to impress so far and according to Guardiola, his team now have the enormous task of winning the Premier League without a world-class striker.
“Normally when you are on top of the league or winning titles, you have one or two top, top scorers,” he said, as reported by MEN. “Now we don’t have it and I don’t know if we will have it, because Sergio will be back hopefully soon but the numbers of Gabriel in the Premier League are not much goals.
“What will help 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. Our game, the way we play, the way we defend, we concede few chances, concede no goals. And the way we create through our game, one day – Raz [Sterling], Riyad [Mahrez], Gabriel, Bernardo [Silva], Gundogan, Phil [Foden],and 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. We have to go as a team to play good and this is our target until the end of the season.
“We’re in this position. In the knockout games, when the game is so tight, then tactics don’t exist. It’s OK, I have the ball, dribble and score. For example, the game at Cheltenham. It was 1-0 after 80 minutes and that is not tactics. It is if you want to win that game, do what you have to do.
“It’s not analytical. I can’t find the right words to express it. Maybe when you have a good run, getting better and better, the confidence to score goals rises.
“Why does one team immediately stop scoring? And then it is unlocked? You prepare the same, the methodology is the same. Sometimes we just score, wow. [In the past] we couldn’t even score in a rugby goal. It’s happened and my feeling is the game, the way we play. If you play good then you have more chances.”
Man City have been playing really well over the past few months and right now, they are the bookmakers’ favourites to win the Premier League. But we can’t help but agree with Guardiola on the fact that an absence of a top quality forward will ultimately hand the advantage to teams like Liverpool and Manchester United during the second half of the season.
After a dull period, Liverpool are starting to pick up the pace and Mo Salah is once again finding the back of the net. Man United might be having a few headaches with the misfiring Anthony Martial but summer signing Edinson Cavani is undoubtedly balancing out things for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Mo Salah is the top goalscorer in the Premier League this season with 15 goals and is followed by Bruno Fernandes, Harry Kane and Son, all of whom are on 12 goals.
Man City’s condition is in fact so bad that none of their players feature in amongst the top seven goalscorers and this is something which is going to prove really costly in the coming months.
