Manchester City: Middlesbrough draw showed why Guardiola is Aguero sceptic

Sergio Aguero scored for Manchester City as the Citizens surprisingly drew 1-1 with Middlesbrough. The performance of Aguero, however, showed exactly why Pep Guardiola remains unconvinced by the striker.

Sergio Aguero is one of the very best strikers in the world. Maybe the best, but certainly in the top three. But Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola seems to be unconvinced by the striker and what he brings to the team.

City drew 1-1 with Middlesbrough in their latest Premier League game. A shock result in a match they were expected to win. Aguero was the scorer of City’s goal, his 150th strike for Manchester City in 223 appearances.

Outside of that goal, though, it was evident the issues Guardiola has with the Argentine. An incredible individual striker with the ability to win you a game, Aguero is a player most clubs would love to have.

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But Guardiola is a master at building teams. Teams that share the ball equally, maintain possession and play with absolute unselfishness. Those are not traits that describe Sergio Aguero. The 28-year-old is City’s best individual player. Key word: individual.

Against Boro, this was on show more than ever. Time and again, Aguero had possession but lost it, either misplacing a pass or trying to dribble past too many opposition defenders and being dispossessed. The easy pass is rarely an option.

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According to WhoScored, Aguero did have the least touches of any outfield player on City’s team – 41. Which is almost half of most others in the team. Yet even though he touched the ball less than everybody else, he still had the worst passing accuracy in the entire team.

Aguero gave the ball away more than anyone and he touched the ball a lot less than anyone else. Does that sound like a typical Guardiola player? Aleksandar Kolarov – who comes in for much criticism from Manchester City fans – had double the touches of Aguero and had a passing accuracy of 90 percent.

So it’s easy to see why Guardiola is a fan of Kolarov and, seemingly, not so much Aguero. However, Aguero also showed against Middlesbrough, the good side to his game. His movement was exceptional as he found space, before latching on to a wonderful Kevin De Bruyne cross to open the scoring.

That was the good part of his display. But Aguero might need to do that three times per game to offset the rest of his play in a Guardiola team. Aguero even missed a golden opportunity to put City 2-0 ahead in the second half, when Jesus Navas squared for him to then only strike wide of the goal.

If Aguero is missing chances and giving the ball away, then what is he doing? Well, getting sent off was almost one thing. The Argentine fouled Adam Forshaw and then kicked out at the midfielder whilst he was on the ground. Crazy. Fortunately the card was yellow and not red from the referee.

Now, there are the good Aguero days when everything goes right for the striker. This was a particularly bad day. But even the good days is Aguero coming up trumps as the amazing individual that he is on most occasions.

Not that Guardiola doesn’t like outstanding individual players in his team. Just look at Lionel Messi. But how often does Messi set off dribbling, only to hold the ball too long and give away possession? Not often. That’s the efficiency Guardiola is looking for. Knowing when the time is right to take a chance in possession. Good decision-making.

Guardiola is looking for his attackers to share the ball, take the easy pass, play with tempo and be unselfish. Unfortunately, Aguero is selfish with the ball, does slow the play down with his one-on-one dribbles and rarely takes the easy pass. And that’s just in possession of the ball.

Right now, Aguero still isn’t quite fitting into what Guardiola demands from his striker. The Middlesbrough game illustrated that. City played well overall, it was just the final third that was the problem.

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The City boss came in for criticism when he dropped Aguero for the Champions League game in Barcelona last month. But Guardiola is only trying to improve the striker’s all-round play. It’s not personal.

Perhaps in time, Aguero will change his game and adapt to what Guardiola demands. But how much time does he have?

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