Manchester City: The Kun is dead, long live the Kun

Sergio Aguero was the star of the show as Manchester City cruised to win 3-1 over West Brom at the Etihad, despite the fact none of the goals were his. What has changed for Kun?

Isn’t it nice when you have an idea in your head, you persevere with it despite repeated failings and then, boom, something clicks and it all works out just like you imagined? Or at least, good enough that you can brag to your mates and/or significant other that you told them so, etc?

I know the feeling from many an hour slaving over a hot microwave in the kitchen. “Those supermarket-bought pizzas are always light on the cheese so why not add your own,” I pondered. Today, millions across the globe do just that because I dared to take that first innovative step. So too, we have the case of Pep Guardiola, Manchester City and Sergio Aguero.

A difficult scenario this, for Pep. He takes over City with his own ideals, strategies and styles of play, all of which vastly different from the norm, particularly in the Premier League. He wants to add his own flavour to his team, and he gets to work removing several parts of the puzzle that no longer fit, but one part remains unmovable – Kun.

Sergio is, of course, the face of Manchester City. Their most popular player by a margin, their star striker, oft considered the best centre forward in the league (and certainly is the most prolific in the competition’s history, with a record-setting average of a goal every 108 minutes) who has undoubtedly been a catalyst to their rise to prominence, even beyond his injury time title winner five years ago this month.

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One thing about Aguero though, he’s a centre forward through-and-through. A striker’s striker, if you will. He’s hungry, greedy even, to score and makes it his business to get in the right areas to do so. The problem with that is, that’s really not Pep’s style at all. This is the manager who brought to the fore the “false 9” at Barca and never played a natural striker there in his four-year tenure, though with Lionel Messi you wouldn’t, would you?

Still, Guardiola has expectations of contributions across the park. A fluid attacking lineup that can shift sides, create chances for each other, draw out defenders to open up key spaces and have the intelligence to make the pass rather than go for glory. For some time now Pep has assured us all that Aguero can be that kind of player, we just haven’t really seen it. Until Tuesday’s game against West Brom.

The difference was, for many, absolutely astounding. He didn’t score, but, if it wasn’t Pablo Zabaleta’s last home game in sky blue, he was a strong shout for Man of the Match. All from his other contributions. His astounding pass accuracy of 87% was head and shoulders above even the Manchester City midfield and he made 2 key passes leading to goal scoring opportunities, more than any other player on the park but Kevin De Bruyne, on the way to assisting Yaya Toure in the second half. Indeed, he was behind every single positive move Guardiola’s men made, including having a hand in the other two goals as well. His cheeky dummy for De Bruyne to lay off to Gabriel Jesus, for the opener, was simply sublime.

So taken aback were the media that one befuddled pundit, in the Kun-dominated post match press conference, asked if perhaps Aguero could be considered on the level of Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. Now, one of these players is obviously not in the same quality bracket as the other two, but, to avoid offending Real Madrid, Pep elected to avoid the question.

Whether this is actually the way it’s going to be for Sergio from now on, remains to be seen. In truth, he’s been working much, much harder since Pep arrived, running almost twice as much on average per game and, even though his ruthlessness in front of goal is down, he’s contributing much more across the park. Nonetheless, the West Brom game still felt like a moment when it all finally clicked.

This is what Guardiola was trying to do. Jesus and Aguero can exist, play and be wildly successful on the park at the same time, but it’s all down to Sergio learning how to adapt to being in the environment presented in the Etihad today, where every single position, goal keeper included, is picked with attack in mind.

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The summer ahead will doubtless be busy, and there’s no guarantees that Kun won’t sense danger from Jesus and new signings yet to come, electing to move. At least, for now, Manchester City fans can take solace in knowing that should he stay he won’t be dead weight, on the contrary, he’s the extra cheese on the pizza which makes it just right.