Manuel Pellegrini says Manchester City will look at strikers in January

Posted Saturday, December 13, 2014 by theguardian.com

· Manager may need back-up for Dzeko and Jovetic
· Sergio Agüero may not return until February
· Leicester v Man City: match preview
· Kompany back in City squad after injury
· Last 16 could expose Manchester City's soft centre

Sergio Agüero's knee injury has given Manuel Pellegrini concerns over Manchester City's striking options.

Manchester City are considering whether to sign a striker in the January transfer window as Manuel Pellegrini weighs up the need to replace Álvaro Negredo, who is on a season-long loan at Valencia before joining the Spanish club permanently next summer.

The manager also has the knee injury to Sergio Agüero to consider now. The Argentinian, who has 19 goals this season, could be out for up to eight weeks, meaning he may not return before City's visit to Chelsea on 31 January.

Pellegrini currently has only Edin Dzeko and Stevan Jovetic as fit, recognised forwards and, as Negredo cannot be recalled, he may decide he has to strengthen next month.

"I never close any window about anything we can do to give us an advantage," said City's manager onFriday. "If all the teams can do it, we can do it also. If we are thinking about that - at this moment we're not - we will analyse in the moment what we are going to do. You remember, when Álvaro was sold in August, I said there were a lot of reasons why we made that decision. Álvaro couldn't play until the middle of November because he was injured, so it was just one and a half months, and then in January we will see if we need to replace him or not. Now we are in that moment we are going to make the best decision for the club."

Last season Dzeko scored 26 times for City. This season he has only four to date but Pellegrini is confident the Bosnian can provide the goals in Agüero's absence. "We trust a lot in Edin," he said. "He had a very good season last season with us. He just renewed his contract. He did that because we trust in him and now it is his moment to try to score goals and return to the performance level he had before he was injured."

Pellegrini said of Agüero: "It's very difficult to say how many weeks he will be injured because it depends on the way he improves every day. The doctor said normally it could be six to eight weeks, so it's difficult to know exactly."

There are no plans to send the Argentinian home to recover over Christmas. "It's not an issue we are talking about in this moment," said Pellegrini. "I think we are all concentrating on what we're doing here but Sergio will stay here because he needs to recover as soon as possible. To travel to South America takes a lot of days and means [there would be] less time he can work on his recovery."

Pellegrini does not know yet precisely when Yaya Touré departs to join the Ivory Coast for the Africa Cup of Nations, which starts on 17 January. "I know it's in January. I don't think it is exactly the first of January but I think it's in the first 10 days of the month that he must go."

Touré's absence reinforces Pellegrini's desire to keep Frank Lampard beyond the end of his six-month loan from New York City FC, and the manager reaffirmed it on Friday.

"Of course. He's a very important player for us and we need him in this moment," said Pellegrini. "Before December finishes we will have a decision but, as I repeat, I think Frank is a very important player for us and I hope we will not have any problems for him to stay here. But I cannot say just from one side what will happen."

Vincent Kompany is in the squad for Saturday's trip to Leicester City after missing the past three games because of a hamstring injury. The captain narrowly missed out on playing in Wednesday evening's 2-0 win at Roma that secured City's progress to the last 16 of the Champions League, after failing a late fitness test.

"Kompany is in the squad list so I don't think he will have any problem to play," said Pellegrini. David Silva should also be available. "We will see. He didn't feel any pain in the knee from the 30 minutes [in Rome], so I think he will be fit," the manager added.

Pellegrini stated last Friday that Joe Hart was going to sign a new deal by the following day but the goalkeeper is yet to do so. "I think it is close. Joe wants to stay here and we want him to be our goalkeeper," said the City manager.