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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Joe Bray

Man City have wildcard striker option while Sergio Aguero is out

In Sergio Aguero's absence for Manchester City last season, Pep Guardiola experimented with plenty of formations to help ease the pressure on Gabriel Jesus.

As well as giving Jesus a long-awaited run in the team, Guardiola also used Raheem Sterling, Bernardo Silva, Kevin de Bruyne and Phil Foden in central attacking positions at times.

Guardiola even hinted at using Ilkay Gundogan as a striker, but never needed to play the German so far forward.

This season, with Aguero still recovering from knee surgery, Guardiola has another option.

Aguero is back at the CFA, posting videos of him running with a ball, but Guardiola confirmed last week he is yet to train with his teammates and will require longer than other players to get back up to speed - potentially up to two months.

In that longest timeframe, City could have 13 fixtures in 61 days - not including two international breaks with three fixtures apiece. With every midweek featuring a game, assuming City progress to the Carabao Cup fourth round, Jesus could face a game every three days for the next two months in Aguero's absence.

So it seems implausible that he will feature in every fixture, especially given Guardiola's vocal criticism of the condensed fixture list and the effect it has on players.

Who, then, will help Jesus burden the load upfront?

The previous 'false nine' options will surely be revisited when necessary, but this season City have a new player to call upon.

In Ferran Torres, City have an exciting winger to add pace to the wide areas, with the new Spain international not short of confidence in his early days at the CFA.

His goal for Spain earlier this month shows he also has the positional awareness to time a run into the box.

Unlike players like Foden, Sterling and Bernardo when they arrived, Torres actually has experience as a central striker - albeit for just two games. One of those matches for Valencia, though, came in an impressive 1-1 draw against Real Madrid.

So as well as offering a new kind of attacking outlet on the wing, maybe Torres can be a short-term solution to cover for Aguero in the next two months.

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