HELP ME MAKE IT THROUGH THE FIGHT
Pep backs defence to keep City stable while strikers seach for shooting boots
SOUTHAMPTON 0 MANCHESTER CITY 1 Sterling 16
IT’S ALWAYS dangerous to write off Manchester City but you’d be tempted to do exactly that if they do not buy a new striker in the January window.
After Raheem Sterling’s winner saw off Southampton, City boss Pep Guardiola insited he will not be adding firepower next month. But can you really challenge for the title without a 25-goal-a-season striker? City have kept seven clean sheets in eight games and sit eight points off leaders Liverpool with a game in hand. But it is up up front where their problems lie, especially with Sergio Aguero – an unused substitute here – admitting he can’t trust his dodgy knee from one day to the next. Aguero’s understudy, Gabriel Jesus, wasn’t quite ready due to problems with his teeth. But he has been largely toothless anyway. The Brazilian has scored just three times this season and hasn’t found the net in seven, stretching back to early November.
To be fair to manager Guardiola, he is well aware that he will struggle to get the likes of Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland, Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martinez or Darwin Nunez of Benfica next month. But the trouble for
City is that, while they struggle for goals, Liverpool have shrugged off the loss of Virgil van Dijk and a string of others to smash their way back to the top of the league.
City were decent in patches against Southampton on Saturday but overall they remain a shadow of their normal selves without a fit and firing Aguero.
In their previous two games they were held to a goalless draw by derby rivals United – who were there for the taking – and had 25 shots on goal at home to West Brom, only to be held to a 1-1 draw.
So, for all their undoubted quality, if Guardiola really does intend to wait until the summer in the hunt for a striker, then he and the club’s fans might have to brace themselves for a fight for a top- four place, never mind a title challenge.
In the Champions League, too, City will have their work cut out.
Guardiola and his side failed to land a serious blow in European football’s elite competition when Aguero was fit. Without his class – or the firepower to replace him – surely nothing will change.
Keeping them in the hunt, domestically at least, is City’s defence. No team has conceded fewer goals (12) or kept more clean sheets in the Premier League this season.
Guardiola heaped praise on two of the men responsible, a resurgent John Stones and summer signing Ruben Dias.
“It’s incredible,” he said. “That’s the way we can still be there, knocking on the door of the teams above us. Ruben has helped us a lot since he came in.
“He’s settled well with John. We need it. They have helped us to be stable while we are waiting for the people upfront to unplug – one day maybe we’ll be fresh to score goals.”
Perhaps forgetting £ 65million Dias’s own goal against West Brom last week, he added: “He doesn’t make one single mistake, Ruben. Not one. He’s always focused.
“That’s why our club bought an exceptional player. You can build something with them.”