The Burning Question: How do we cope with the Aguero injury fall-out?

Sergio Aguero’s tearful, early departure during Man City’s clash with Everton last Saturday sent shockwaves through the Fantasy football community. The confirmation that a knee injury will leave him sidelined for at least a month finally came later in the week and left Fantasy managers facing the tough task of replacing a player who, with 14 goals, three assists, 17 bonus points and 105 Fantasy Premier League (FPL) points, is seemingly irreplaceable.

Aguero’s hefty price tag of 12.7 offers further complications. While some will use the money to invest in another premium-priced forward, others are set to opt for a budget striker and use the spare change to invest in midfield and defence. With this in mind we ask the Burning Question: how do Fantasy managers cope with the Aguero injury fall out?

Jonty says…
First off we must all realise there is no direct like-for-like replacement for Aguero. Sure, there are options who fill that squad place, but there is no other player so far this season who dominates an attacking team in such a way, who can score three or four goals in a match and also rack up assists and bonus points. Any striker replacement is a downgrade, pure and simple.

Once we’ve accepted that fact, we can move on to turning this tragic turn of events into an advantage. The key advantage to replacing Aguero is what you do with the change that is left over.

By coincidence, Aguero’s injury has also come at a time when premium midfielders are on the march. Yaya Toure and Aaron Ramsey are emerging as the prospects they once were. David Silva is back from injury and Eden Hazard, Alexis Sanchez and Cesc Fabregas are continuing to score well. Plus there are a wealth of good scoring, mid-priced midfielders such as Gylfi Sigurdsson and Stewart Downing offering the chance to upgrade a fifth midfielder, should a 3-5-2 formation appeal.

Given the strength of midfielders, I’d advocate swapping Aguero out for a mid-price or cheap striker who has good fixtures and is pivotal to their side. At the more expensive end of this group are Everton’s Romelu Lukaku, Swansea’s Wilfried Bony and Aston Villa’s Christian Benteke. Meanwhile, Charlie Austin and Diafra Sakho are the pick of the budget to lower mid-price options. However, Austin is sadly is suspended just when Aguero owners need him most.

For me, Lukaku has the edge amongst the mid-to-higher-priced options as he plays in a more attacking side. Next is Bony, with his strong home form, and lastly Benteke, who dominates his side’s attacking output, although it’s fair to say that Villa are not the most attack-minded in the Premier League. Investing in one of these will free up between 3.0-5.0 potentially, which should be used to bring in a premium midfielder. This way you end up with two high-scoring players, rather than one.

The option I’m less keen on is a straight swap with Diego Costa, who is failing to live up to his armband status due to a low chance of bonus and assists. For 11.0m, I’d want a striker to be a captaincy option most weeks.

Wayne Rooney is another option I’d advocate. Granted, he does not free up as much money as the likes of Bony but, unlike Costa, he does offer strong points promise in terms of goals, assists and bonus – the holy trinity of captaincy potential.

Tinkerman says…
There’s definitely a strong argument for using Aguero’s absence as an excuse to shift funds away from your attack and invest them in midfield and perhaps defence. There is no shortage of players in the mid-priced and budget range; Bony, Lukaku, Benteke and Edin Dzeko all have the fixtures and the potential to keep pace with more expensive strikers and, unlike in seasons gone by, there are plenty of options doing well around the 6.0 mark.

With only one expensive striker, there would be plenty of funds for bulking up in midfield, where there is an ever-growing number of expensive options with big potential, including relative differentials such as Yaya Toure, who will benefit from spot-kicks in the absence of his Argentinian team-mate, and Aaron Ramsey, who certainly seems to be getting into more shooting positions in the box, now that Olivier Giroud is back in the Arsenal starting XI.

It also looks like a good time to invest more in defence, with Nathaniel Clyne and Ryan Bertrand’s appeal waning and doubts over Calum Chambers’ pitch-time due to Mathieu Debuchy’s impending return. If you don’t own Leighton Baines and a Chelsea defender already, now would seem like the ideal opportunity to use some of the funds freed from the Aguero sale in defence to bring them in ahead of their kind schedules.

D1sable says…
Somehow this feels like it’s going to be a season-defining decision. Perhaps I’m being dramatic, or maybe just a little romantic, but who can blame me? I’m a Man United fan and even I love the little Argentine – clearly, though, nobody can compare with his Fantasy output, so where to turn?

The simplest answer for me is my nemesis (and I’m sure many others), Mr Edin Dzeko. City’s next five fixtures (lei, CPL, wba, BUR, SUN) should hand him the chance to prosper . The operative word being ‘should’ here – the big man has a history of letting us down when we need him most and the stage couldn’t be more perfectly set.

Can he step up given Aguero’s 65% goal involvement? Is he fully fit? Will he earn bonus or assists when it’s not going his way in front of goal? Can he control his own feet? These are all questions that I simply can’t answer but maybe answers are not even required – sometimes, as hardcore Fantasy managers, we can fall foul of these type of questions and end up knee-deep in stats, justifying this and that when the answer is right there in front of us and obvious to even a novice.

The fixtures are great, he’s a goalscorer who is nailed on and City are very, very good at attacking. Sign me up for one more ride.

Roscola says…
After initially bemoaning the loss of the best Fantasy asset since Luis Suarez, I’ve since decided to turn my sour grapes into mulled wine. You see, the big positive in this dreadful situation is that it comes just in time for the annual festive rotate-a-thon. Just when I was struggling to find cash to upgrade my broken bench to cope with it, along comes a giant windfall. Because unless you’ve got your heart set on Van Persie, whoever you choose to fill Aguero’s boots will come with a big bag of change.

As wonderfully timed as George Boyd’s goals have been, his upcoming schedule doesn’t exactly reek of more to come. I’m a big advocate of the “Aguero and Boyd to mid-price striker and good-quality midfielder” move – that gives me a fully playable front eight for the festive season, and maybe even a few spare pennies for a magic wand to wave over Luke Moore and turn him into a prince.

Applebonkers says…
First off it’s very frustrating being caught so cold with this injury. This is because an Aguero injury should be entirely inevitable, given his history. Instead, I’d been engrossed in the wave of glory that was brought upon by Aguero suddenly getting regular 90-minute run-outs for the champions.

It was basically two months of ‘Ooooh look at the pretty colours’ with no hint of contemplating a plan B just in case the man financed by Abu Dhabi once again went all Abou Diaby. I defy anyone to take a step back and plan for what might happen when the present is so glorious. That’s why well paid athletes somehow go bankrupt, that’s why you wake up hungover, that’s why that time you got a Domino’s two for Tuesday, instead of saving one for the day after, you tried to eat both and felt a little bit sick for the rest of the evening.

This state of unprepared panic is getting mixed in with another of FPL’s more carnal phenomenons – the urge to spend your entire budget. It means Robin van Persie is suddenly an option, as are four- or even eight-point hits involving Yaya Toure – don’t deny it, I saw you looking! The thing is, as the season approaches its most congested period, I’m not sure there is any shame in looking their way – a couple of safe starters, on penalties and playing for the league’s two most in-form teams, sitting first and third in the current form rankings. City, in particular, have the most tantalising set of fixtures to lead them into the New Year. I have a suspicion dull may be the way to go so maybe marinate your choice(s) in someone like Aleksandar Kolarov to help keep the romance alive.

Greenwindmill says…
So, this season’s must-have toy Sergio Aguero is no longer available and in a spectacular panic buy I’ve gone ahead and sourced a replacement – Edin Dzeko.

Just like Aguero, he’s a Man City striker and comes with exactly the same beautiful blue ticker as the Argentine, but unfortunately that’s where the similarities end. With poor reviews, reliability issues and lacking the oh-so-attractive captain’s armband accessory, I can’t help but feel that my FPL team are likening me to the well intentioned relative who always buys the wrong Christmas present. “I couldn’t find ‘The Office’ so I got you ‘Derek’ instead – it’s a Ricky Gervais comedy, just like you wanted.” False smiles and insincere thanks all round as jealous glances are cast at friends enjoying their expensive gifts thoughtfully purchased in Kensington and the Trafford Centre.

Still, it could be worse; there are some poor souls who will spend Christmas day with Harry Kane in their team – now that’s real Mrs Brown’s Boys territory and there are never any smiles there, not even false ones.

Mark says…
The loss of Sergio Aguero has hit us hard. We were all settled on the Argentine and configuring our forward lines around him, lining him up for the armband for the foreseeable future.

While there are plenty of options, I think it remains essential to back City’s quest for goals over the festive spell. Their schedule is just too good and, having been buoyed by Champions League progress, Manuel Pellegrini’s side should maintain their challenge to Chelsea regardless of Aguero’s absence.

That certainly suggests that Yaya Toure and a re-alignment of our squads to a 3-5-2 is the way to go, but with the Ivorian balancing one booking away from a ban and the Africa Cup of Nations in January, I’m in two minds on his worth. With David Silva set to return, Toure’s goal power could rely on spot-kicks, and while he was hugely fortunate to have them come his way in Aguero’s absence last season, there’s no guarantee of this repeating over the next four or five matches.

Inevitably, that brings me to Edin Dzeko – a player who will surely benefit from Aguero’s absence with a run of starts. Yes, there’s the Stevan Jovetic option but I can’t see him leading Pellegrini’s attack in a 4-5-1, and with Silva back and Samir Nasri in stellar form, the Chilean seems unlikely to opt for two up front.

Dzeko will surely lead the line, then, and when he starts in front of Silva, Nasri and Toure, he’ll get opportunities. The Bosnian has his critics but I’ve always admired his instincts in the opponents’ box – he’s a goalscorer and, at 8.1, provides funds to bolster the midfield and consider further City targets, or even Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsey.