Pep Guardiola remains confident in Sergio Agüero’s penalty-taking ability despite his latest miss, against Everton on Saturday and which means the Argentinian has now missed a total of nine from 38.
Since missing two at Dinamo Bucharest early in the season, Agüero scored from the spot against Stoke City and Swansea as well as against Borussia Mönchengladbach in the opening Champions League group game, but then missed in a World Cup qualifier against Paraguay five days ago.
Guardiola, speaking after Saturday’s 1-1 draw at the Etihad Stadium , said: “I love the players who have the personality to take the penalties. I love it, I’m sorry. So I will never say to a player who wants to take the penalties: ‘No, I want someone else to take them.’
“He’s intelligent so if he’s not feeling confident like this, then he will say: ‘I’ll step back and let another guy kick the penalty.’ Yes, he has the personality to take one at the Nou Camp [in the Champions League on Wednesday].”
The Everton manager, Ronald Koeman, believes Agüero may now have a “mental question” regarding penalties. The failure at the Etihad Stadium was his sixth of 2016. The striker’s unsuccessful attempt came in the second half after he replaced Kelechi Iheanacho and after Kevin De Bruyne also missed from the spot before the interval. Goals from Romelu Lukaku and Nolito on 64 and 72 minutes shared the points to stretch City’s winless run to three games.
He said: “Maybe it is a little bit of a mental question, maybe for Agüero, I don’t know, because it is not the first time that he has missed.”
Koeman, who was a team-mate of Guardiola’s at Barcelona during their playing days, is clear that City will pose a threat to Luis Enrique’s side this week but warned they may be picked off. “They are strong enough as a team to get a good result but you play against Messi, Neymar and Suárez and you can score out of one chance but Barcelona get four chances and they will score three times.
“That’s the problem for them on Wednesday – the individual qualities of Barcelona is so extremely high. But City can beat Barcelona. They will also have the ball and I think it is the best game you can watch between the philosophy of two teams and it is a really high standard of football. I’m really looking forward to seeing that game.
“The way they played [against Everton], the way they showed to the fans of City – it was a great performance but the result is not what they maybe deserved. But if they go on in this way, with this football and they keep everyone fit [it can be] perfect.”
