Aguero blow! Alternatives required…

I said I’d be furious if we came out of the 2nd leg against Barca with any injuries to key players ahead of the far-more-important Premier League run-in. And I am. But I suppose it could has easily have happened at Hull this coming Saturday; Sergio was largely anonymous at Camp Nou and he didn’t seem to do anything specific to cause a relapse of his frustrating hamstring injury.

Alternatives and creative thinking

Jovetic out (no return date) and our star striker out also (no report as yet on the extent of the injury). Pellegrini sure needs to get his engineering thinking cap on. Could I be so bold as to make a few suggestions to him?

1. Put a call in to Mark Hughes and get John Guidetti back straight away (assuming we didn’t agree for him to stay at Stoke for the rest of the season regardless of the situation)
2. Whether we get John back or not, start introducing Devante Cole to the first time now!
3. If you’re not going to do either, Manuel, you need to seriously re-think this 4-4-2 system (Alvaro & Edin just don't work well together); you have a wealth of attacking, creative & goal-scoring midfielders so why not take a leaf out of Pepe Guardiola’s book?

4-5-1 / 4-1-4-1:

_______________Negredo_______________

 

 

 

Nasri____________________________Navas

__________Toure________Silva__________

______________Fernandinho_____________

 

Clichy_____Lescott____Kompany____Zabaleta

 

 

_________________Hart_________________

 

No?

Well how about REALLY going at Premier League teams ‘Pep style’ with a 4-6-0?

 

________________No-one_______________

 

 

Lopes______Nasri_______Toure_____Navas

 

_________Fernandinho____Silva__________

 

 

Clichy_____Lescott____Kompany___Zabaleta

 

 

_________________Hart_________________

 

Our manager is going to have to do something radical if we are indeed going to lose Aguero again for another few weeks; Negredo is suffering on more than one front and can we REALLY rely on Dzeko for most of the remainder of the all-important season?

Is it really so outlandish to play in either of these style-formations? Admittedly a change of system at this stage of the season could prove problematic but they ARE professionals and should be able to adapt. Some of them, in fact, I bet have PLAYED these formations – certainly Yaya did during his time with his last employer.

And if our players do, temporarily, get confused with a change of tactics then just think how much our Premier League rivals will be. I’m sure most of them, by now, have studied plenty of DVD footage of how we [usually] play; not least the Wigan Athletic lesson that was there for all to see.

Fingers crossed on 'Aguero news' but I am fearing the worse…