Sergio Aguero reaffirmed his status as the league’s most lethal forward this season, racking up 26 goals as City finished second behind champions Chelsea. The Golden Boot winner justified his weighty 12.0 price tag, delivering attacking returns in 22 of his 33 appearances, and serving up a personal best of 216 points in the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) game.
The Statistics
As has been the unfortunate reality throughout his City career, Aguero was Fantasy gold when fit and firing yet inevitably succumbed to injury at some stage. Despite clocking significantly more pitch time than in the previous two campaigns, the Argentina international still only graced the pitch for 2532 minutes – put that into perspective, Eden Hazard managed 3373 minutes in Chelsea’s title-winning campaign. Nonetheless, Aguero still finished second overall behind the Belgian’s 233 points and ended the season as City’s top scoring Fantasy assets, some 25 points ahead of David Silva.
Handed a sub role for the first two Gameweeks due to World Cup duties for Argentina, Aguero emerged from the bench to net in cameos against Newcastle United and Liverpool. The South American preserved that momentum right through to Gameweek 14, tallying 14 goals and three assists over that period, with his price ballooning up to 12.9 as a result. The biggest wave of new owners (370,000) arrived after his four-goal spree against Tottenham Hotspur in Gameweek 8.
Aguero was then beset with injury for six Gameweeks, encouraging over one million owners to cash in on the Sky Blues striker. His ten starts following a full return in Gameweek 22 marked a downturn in productivity, harvesting just three goals and four assists as he struggled to recapture his lethal early-season displays.
From Gameweek 32 onwards, however, Aguero ran riot after Manuel Pellegrini moved from a 4-4-2 back to a lone striker system. Leading the line on his own, the Argentine turned in a breathless display of finishing prowess, notching nine goals and three assists – rendering him a must-have for City’s run-in.
This late flurry cemented his position at the summit of the scoring charts, having bagged five more goals (26) than his immediate challenger, Harry Kane (21). Aguero underlined his capacity for huge returns with three 15+ points hauls, netting two or more goals on six occasions. The former Atletico Madrid marksman supplemented this goal output with ten assists, becoming one of only three players (alongside Hazard and Silva) to post double figures in both the goals and assists columns.
Aguero’s scoring rate was unrivalled: no forward in the league could better his minutes per goal average (101.6), which in turn afforded him the best points per game average (6.5), ahead of Hazard (6.1). The Belgian livewire (42) did boast a superior tally of bonus points though, with Aguero (27) ranking fifth overall in that regard, just behind team-mate Silva (28).
The Prospects
As discussed in Monday’s article on Alexis Sanchez, the upcoming Copa America may have a part to play in our early-season plans. Pellegrini has insisted he will hand Aguero, Martin Demichelis and Pablo Zabaleta a 30-day break over the summer and bearing in mind that the Copa America final is on July 4, it may well be that, if Argentina progress to the latter stages, we could see a similar scenario to the 2014/15 campaign, when, as mentioned above, he was introduced off the bench in City’s first couple of matches.
As the chief goal threat for the league’s highest-scoring team in each of the past four years, a fully-fit Aguero will doubtless be the first name on most Fantasy managers’ squad list. To an extent, though, much may depend on how Pellegrini chooses to line up next term. There’s no question that Aguero functions better as a Fantasy asset on his own up top, though his manager’s penchant for a two-man frontline remains a concern.
The winter signing of Wilfried Bony could yet prove a spanner in the works, then. The Ivorian’s move from Swansea brought a proven Premier League scorer to the Etihad, yet he was handed just two starts by Pellegrini in 2015 after being snapped up for £28m on the back of his successful displays for the Welsh outfit.
Speaking on the former Swans striker recently, Pellegrini admitted that he was reluctant to start Bony in the midst of the Sky Blues’ winning streak but insisted he’ll be a key player next term:
“He was very unlucky maybe this year when we bought him because he started by going to the Africa Cup of Nations and he came back with a lot of games in his body. After that he had an important injury in his ankle and his knee in the same leg, so he stopped for about three or four weeks. After that we won five games in a row and I didn’t want to make changes during this moment. But it’s very important for him to play the minutes he can, first last week against Queens Park Rangers and now he has participated with a goal at Swansea. I am absolutely sure we bought the player that we need and that he will be important in our future.”
Time will tell whether Aguero and Bony can forge a mutually beneficial relationship, perhaps elevating the latter beyond an impact substitute and into a cheaper, yet profitable, route into City’s forward line. Certainly, if Bony can nail down a regular role ahead of the likes of Edin Dzeko and Stevan Jovetic, his record at the Liberty suggests he could be one to watch.
Elsewhere in the premium bracket, it remains to be seen whether Diego Costa can afford us a consistency of pitch time to rival Aguero, having missed 12 matches through injury or suspension last time out. Similarly, with Daniel Sturridge set to be sidelined for the first couple of months of the new season and the likes of Robin van Persie struggling for a starting berth at United, it’s difficult to look beyond Aguero as the one must-have striker in our three-man frontlines for the campaign ahead.
8 years, 11 months ago13.0 mill next season?