Man City boss Pep Guardiola reveals he has four players who could replace Sergio Aguero - 7M sport

Man City boss Pep Guardiola reveals he has four players who could replace Sergio Aguero



Posted Thursday, June 25, 2020 by Express.co.uk

Manchester City are set to be without Sergio Aguero until at least August.

Man City boss Pep Guardiola reveals he has four players who could replace Sergio Aguero
Man City boss Pep Guardiola will not put too much pressure on Gabriel Jesus (Image: GETTY)

Pep Guardiola insists he has no doubts Gabriel Jesus can step in to replace sidelined Sergio Aguero from now until the end of the season. But the Manchester City boss says he will not run the Brazilian into the ground given he has other options in Bernardo Silva, Raheem Sterling and even Ilkay Gundogan in reserve.

Aguero will have surgery to repair damaged meniscus in his left knee in Barcelona today.

And while Guardiola refused to speculate on how long that will rule him out with some suggesting it could be eight weeks, he maintained City have plenty of options up front.

"We don’t have any doubts about Gabriel,” he said. “The only doubt we have is because not one single player with the preparation we have can play every three days.

"No one player in this team can play 90 minutes every three days. So we have Gabriel. But Raheem can play in this position, even Gundogan and Bernardo can play in this position.”

City moved quickly to send their star striker to Dr Ramon Cugat in Barcelona following his early exit against Burnley on Monday night.

And the striker will have already started his recovery by the time City take the field against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge tonight.

Man City boss Pep Guardiola reveals he has four players who could replace Sergio Aguero
Man City striker Gabriel Jesus will look to take his chance while Sergio Aguero is injured (Image: GETTY)

"Once he finishes the surgery maybe we’ll know exactly the time when he can come back to join us and play with us,” said Guardiola.

"But I don’t know right now (whether he is a doubt for the Champions League). After surgery we’ll know exactly what the doctor sees and exactly what he has done.

"He will tell us more about the time to come back.”

Sterling and Bernardo have played in the middle, the latter as a false nine, but Gundogan would be a surprise replacement.

Guardiola insisted he would have no problem adapting.

"Players who understand the game, they are so much smarter and the understand how to play football, they can play all the positions.

"Ilkay is an outstanding player because he is so intelligent and intelligent players can play as full-backs, wingers.

"We have Gabriel but of course we play a lot of games with short time recovery. Sterling can play there without a doubt but at the same time Bernardo can play there.

"But Gundogan can play in a lot of positions because he is so smart.”

Guardiola said tonight’s clash with Chelsea is lower on his list of priorities than Saturday’s FA Cup quarter final against Newcastle, despite the fact defeat could finally hand the title to Liverpool.

"Chelsea and Liverpool (next Thursday) are prestigious and important games but Newcastle is our game,” he said.

"A final for us. We have one eye on Chelsea but the other eye, the team selection depends on physical condition and the minutes they have played.”



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