Sergio Aguero must get used to being rotated – with Pep Guardiola warning he is no longer untouchable at Manchester City.
Aguero was benched for City’s 2-1 win at Bournemouth, before the international break, and is sweating on his place for today’s visit of Liverpool.
The striker has an impressive record against the Reds, scoring in all five of his Premier League appearances against them at the Etihad.
But the emergence of Gabriel Jesus means the Argentine is no longer an automatic pick, with Guardiola ready to place his faith in the Brazil prodigy.
“I said many times, he’s going to play a lot of games and sometimes he’s not going to play,” said Guardiola.
“I know it’s something special when a player who was never rotated, who’s always played, with the previous managers. It doesn’t matter what happens, he’s always in the line-up. In my case, he’s going to play like he did last season – a lot of games.
“I think he played, when he was fit, maybe 80 or 90 per cent of the games, especially in the important ones, he was always there.
“So maybe one day we decide we’ll only play with one striker, sometimes with Gabriel, sometimes with two.
“Sometimes we’ll play with neither, maybe Sergio and Gabriel won’t play and we’ll play a ‘false nine’. We will see.”
When Guardiola was told of Aguero’s record against Liverpool at the Etihad, he joked: “I didn’t know that record, so now he’s going to play tomorrow.” Although the boss assured Aguero he will play a lot, the 29-year-old was only restored to the starting line-up for a run of games last season because Jesus was out through injury.
Jesus, 20, having made an explosive start to his City career, was out for two months from February to April, missing 13 games, before returning to start the final five matches.
Aguero’s position would have been under threat even more had City managed to sign Alexis Sanchez from Arsenal, until the £60million deal fell through on deadline day.
It was claimed City had offered Raheem Sterling (left) to Arsenal as part of the deal to sign Sanchez, but Guardiola claimed there was no way he would have let the midfielder go.
“They wanted to make a swap with Raheem,” added Guardiola. “I said, ‘No chance, zero chance, not one per cent chance’ to make a swap.
“I trust a lot in him. He’s 22, English and has a lot of time to improve. The only deal, if possible, was cash.
“We tried to make an offer, they accepted, but in the end they could not sign the player they wanted to sign, so Alexis stayed at Arsenal.”