How Sergio Aguero’s Ban Affects The Manchester Derby

The first Manchester Derby of the season is going to take place this Saturday. The fixture is one of the oldest Premier League rivalries and whole of the world will be looking forward to it. Jose Mourinho will be pretty happy that his old rival from Spain, Pep Guardiola will have one gun less in his arsenal, Sergio Aguero. The striker was recently handed a 3 match suspension for elbowing West Ham defender Winston Reid.

Aguero is the all time leading goal scorer for Manchester City in the fixture. Moreover, he is currently the leading goal scorer in the league, tied with his Manchester rival Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Man City will definitely miss the Argentine.

There are many things one can see Pep using to his advantage to make sure his side paints  Manchester in colors of Blue. Here are few of the options that Man City boss might use to propel in his first Manchester Derby:

• Kelechi Iheanacho 

The Nigerian has impressed Pep Guardiola since his young days in the academy. Moreover, he has always been up to the services of his team with vital goals as a substitute. His incredible speed along with almost one shot on goal per game, we might see Pep using his youngster to take the center stage. When asked earlier this week,  Iheanacho said,

“If I get picked I’m going to do my job. Games like this mean a lot and it doesn’t come bigger than a derby.”

 

• The Good-Old False No 9
  

Ever Since his days in Barcelona, Pep has been a fan of using strikers as false number 9. He revolutionized FCB’s game play, and gave the world Lionel Messi as a result. With his new team, he has been pretty obvious to bring in the possession game. With Sergio Aguero out of  the fixture and Raheem Sterling putting man of the match performances, we might see Manchester City using their attacking mid field players playing a more attacking game. Guardiola can employ either of Nolito, Sterling or Silva as a false 9, with sufficient firepower in midfield.

• Flexible Wing-Play

There is no doubt that this fixture will be huge. As history has showed us, Manchester Derbies have played a major role when it comes to Premier League. Hence, there is no doubt that Guardiola will show no mercy to his rivals. With the excellence of Nolito, Kevin De Bruyne, David Silva and Leroy Sane; we might see a more flexible wing play from the Blues. Using midfielders to switch with the wingers time to time is a trick Pep has been using since his days from Bayern Munich. We might see him doing the same against The Red Devils this Saturday.

We at essentially Sports can only guess as to what Pep may or may not do. The world will soon find out when the giants clash this Saturday. For more, stay tuned!