Martin Samuel on Sergio Aguero

we should change your name to linkboy today  )

Just for you Moon...

Honestly, who could fail to love Sergio Aguero? Well, that’s an interesting one.
Pep Guardiola hasn’t always seemed smitten and spent the last days of the transfer window trying to buy Alexis Sanchez, whose arrival would have put an even tighter squeeze on Aguero’s place at Manchester City.
Then there are Aguero’s fellow professionals, who have never voted him into the PFA team of the year, despite winning two titles, and the Golden Boot in 2014-15. Daniel Sturridge and Wayne Rooney have made the XI during his time in England, so too Romelu Lukaku and Jamie Vardy. Harry Kane has made three lists. 
Honestly, who could fail to love Sergio Aguero? Well, that’s an interesting one.
Pep Guardiola hasn’t always seemed smitten and spent the last days of the transfer window trying to buy Alexis Sanchez, whose arrival would have put an even tighter squeeze on Aguero’s place at Manchester City.
Then there are Aguero’s fellow professionals, who have never voted him into the PFA team of the year, despite winning two titles, and the Golden Boot in 2014-15. Daniel Sturridge and Wayne Rooney have made the XI during his time in England, so too Romelu Lukaku and Jamie Vardy. Harry Kane has made three lists. 
Not only did Aguero score City’s first — the only one that went in when Liverpool had 11 men — his unselfish creation of the third was the truest sign yet that Guardiola is forging the spirit of title challengers. When, with goalkeeper Simon Mignolet to beat, Aguero spurned the chance to go it alone, it spoke to the unity all managers hope to create within their group. With a square pass, Aguero gave the tap-in goal to Jesus, just to make sure.

SUPER STAT 

This was City’s first league win over Liverpool since August 2014. 

‘That means a lot for me, what Sergio did,’ said Guardiola. ‘Sergio and Gabriel are good guys and exceptional players, and their relationship is top. Strikers always have the attitude, “I want to score more than my team-mate” — but it is still important to have the ability to choose the right decision, as Sergio did.
‘When it happens next time, Gabriel is going to do that for Sergio. We want to create something special in the locker room so that was important for us.’
For Guardiola, too. Before this game his record against the other elite clubs in the Premier League — Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea, Liverpool and Everton — was two wins in 16. 
Playing City with 10 men for close to an hour was always going to be beyond Liverpool. To concede five, however, was not inevitable. Jurgen Klopp had his defensive unit intact and it was a surprise how easily City took them apart.
Guardiola says the change this season is that Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva can be used in creative midfield roles, and the overlapping full backs allow his wide players to give Aguero and Jesus more support. Certainly, in the second half, Benjamin Mendy and Leroy Sane took Liverpool apart down the left.
And with Philippe Coutinho absent, Liverpool had nobody who could play a pass equal to the one from De Bruyne that set up Aguero’s opener. It took out half of the Liverpool team.
Klopp said it could have been negated by his defence stepping up, but all coaches know a way to make a game end 0-0 in their minds. Sadio Mane’s red card was a factor, but didn’t cost the game. City always looked likely to find a path through.
There was sympathy over the dismissal, but an air of resignation about its inevitability. Mane’s collision with Ederson was an accident. Mane could not have calculated where the keeper’s head might be as he tried to get a touch. Had he not gone for it, the visiting fans would have been irate. 

Once he kicked Ederson’s head while flying through the air, however, he was in the realm of reckless endangerment and Jonathan Moss was not in the minority when seeing it as a red card. The relief is that Ederson was not concussed or incapacitated and his wounds are gory, but superficial. He was having an accomplished game, too — another of Guardiola’s trials that may be reaching a happy end.
But the defence remains a worry. Klopp was right to say Liverpool had the opportunity to lead before City scored, and Mohamed Salah in particular found space, only to waste it. ‘You can defend not perfectly and still win 5-0,’ said Klopp, less churlishly than it sounds. ‘If City take too much from this game, they make a mistake.’
True, but they can take something. They can take that this is already a better team than last year and that the threat posed by Aguero and Jesus in tandem is down to a bond more dangerous and substantial than mere professional courtesy.

cheers matey.
all the newspaper links are temperamental at work..

We have only two strikers, so getting Sanchez would just mean we had cover. It's not a sign that Sergio is on his way out and the comment about him being a "squad player" would, I guess, be a consistent message to all his players. The fact he played both against Liverpool and chose to sub Jesus off and let Sergio play suggests to me that he believes he's still an important player. Just not more important than the club.

Agree Leo. The very fact that Aguero squared the pass to Jesus, looks very like how Barcelona play and as long as they keep scoring, we'll struggle to find a better partnership in the PL.

Oh, totally. And it's not like Sergio hasn't played in a front two before - he's done it with Dzeko, Negredo and Balotelli. He's no stranger to the format and, if anything, it makes it harder for teams to mark him out of the game and as such gives him more freedom to be a thorn in their sides.

yep. the first goal the other day was in part because Jesus pulled Klavan to the right wing by a few paces opening the gap for Sergio to run through (and KdB to thread it)..

A good case in point, Moon. Without Jesus there, Klavan would've shut that pass down.