Guardiola constantly said that the club needed a striker. But this season has shown that City can manage without a striker.
In fact, City do without the classic nine for the second season. But this is where the team lost all options. Sergio Aguero left the club last summer – the traumatic Argentine was promised a statue near the Etihad, but was not offered a new contract. By the start of the season, Aguero’s heir, Gaby Jesus, also flew from the nine position. The Brazilian asked Pep to move him to the flank, where he doesn’t have to worry about poor conversion. As the season progressed, we listed the options that Pep used for the role of a false nine. If you do not take into account the episodic appearances in front of Torres and Jesus, there were six options in total. The main finishers were Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden. As a rule, the choice depends on the appearance of Jack Grealish in the base. If he plays, Foden starts in attack. If Pep leaves him in reserve, Bernardo starts. After talks on Kane broke down, Guardiola gave the team a simple goal for the season: goals should be distributed among all players. By the end of the campaign, it can be recognized that the task is completed. Firstly, the team is close to the performance of the best seasons – 12 goals are missing from the record of the 2017/18 season, but there are still two matches to play. Secondly, several players at once either broke a personal performance record (KDB, Rodri, Laporte), or were on the verge of it (Bernardo, Foden). If we redistribute goals by 90 minutes, then Riyad Mahrez also holds the fastest season (1.1 goals per game on average).