Say What?

Sergio’s struggles, Gunners goals and Junior joy make for a meaty diet of quotes from managers and players this week.

Throw in a side of Everton defenders and slices of Austin and Pickford and you’ll have plenty to digest.

Pep Talks Aguero Angst

As Robbie Savage once said, ‘the course of true love never did run smooth’. Although, on reflection, that could have been Shakespeare.

Either way, the relationship between Pep Guardiola and Sergio Aguero (13.1) looks to be going through a rocky patch.

Just about every Fantasy manager everywhere loves Aguero. Guardiola? Based on the fact that he’s benched the Argentinian in consecutive matches…less so.

The striker is in a slump at the moment. He’s not scored in five matches for club and country and has missed two penalties while he’s been about it.

On the subject of spot kicks, Pep has been reassuring.

“Yes. I love players who have the personality to take the penalties. I love it, I’m sorry. I will never say to a player who wants to take penalties ‘No, I want someone else to take them now’. He’s intelligent so if he’s not feeling confident, then he will say, ‘I’ll step back and let another guy kick the penalty’.”

Then again, you can’t take a penalty if you’re not actually on the pitch…

Aguero has admitted that he can feel like ‘a bad player’ when wearing an Argentinian shirt. Could criticism from the Argentinian press be behind his recent struggles?

Guardiola’s response was, in so many words, ‘get over it’.

“Emotionally he’s fine, he’s very well. But you have to know, we are all criticised. It can make you stronger, you can put up with it or else you’d better find something else to do. It’s not exclusive to Sergio, it’s happening to Leo [Messi] too, with Di Maria. It happens to Dani Alves in Brazil, to Neymar in Brazil, to Raz [Raheem Sterling] in England. When you play badly and you lose, they kill you.”

Aside from being killed, Aguero has more pressing concerns – concerns about pressing.

“Pep is very picky about everything. It’s good. The good thing is that I’m getting used to him and automatically going straight in to pressing the centre-backs. He wants me right as a nine, but then he gives me more freedom too. He asks me to move all around the attack. On the other hand, here at the national team I did it against Peru, and I realised I left the midfield unprotected. I’m used to do it but it in this case it’s Pipa (Gonzalo Higuain) who should do it. Sometimes on the pitch I run, press and forget it.”

With a string of attractive fixtures to come, Aguero had been looking nailed-on for consistent captaincy duties. But all these mixed messages flying around will only make us question what’s the right thing to do. His minutes against Southampton look vital.

Good Times For The Gunners

Unlike City, it’s all unicorns and rainbows at Arsenal.

Arsene Wenger certainly seems happy with his front man, Alexis Sanchez (11.3), who’s scored six goals this season and has no real worries about being replaced by the fit-again Olivier Giroud (8.8).

“I think from game to game he’s improving in this position. It’s completely different style to Giroud, but…he’s more dribbler, a guy who comes to the ball, a guy who runs at people with the ball. Olivier is more a game who brings other players in.”

And if Sanchez runs dry, there’s always Mesut Ozil (9.5) – another man with six goals to his name already – to bang them in.

“Mesut has that in the locker you know. When you see him finish like that, you think ‘Come on my friend – do it more often!’ because in training he scores, it’s very difficult to read for the keepers and he scores when he wants. And we want him to take more opportunities. I think it’s coming. It’s coming and I hope these kind of goals (in the win against Swansea) give him the taste to do more.”

And if Ozil runs dry, there’s always Theo Walcott (7.9) – eight goals this season – to bang them in, as the man himself explained.

“I am happy with the goals. I’m happy with the general play and defensive play as well, perhaps even more than the forward part of my game. I already know how well I can go forward, but there’s also other bits to do and I’ve been doing that this season. I think it’s the biggest step forward I’ve taken this season. It’s the biggest piece of energy which I’ve never had before. I don’t know what that is, but I’ve been working really hard on that, in the summer and with a personal trainer – all little things which add up. It seems to be going well at this moment in time and I’m enjoying playing football.”

Theo’s happy, his 15.2% owners are happy and, with Middlesbrough at home and a trip to Sunderland up next, there could be a lot more happiness to come.

Stanislas Still The Junior Partner

If it’s not exactly grim up North London, things are positively radiant on the south coast, particularly if your name is Junior Stanislas (5.5).

The Bournemouth boy wonder has three goals and a trio of assists in as many matches, racking up 36 points in the process. He’s also gained 32,000+ new owners this Gameweek.

One of his brace against Hull’s ramshackle rearguard came from the penalty spot, but Stanislas’ growing Fantasy fan club best not get too excited about that being a permanent arrangement, as Cherries striker Callum Wilson (6.5) was quick to stress.

“I’d won the penalty and as a striker, naturally, not having scored, I wanted it. The ball was thrown over my head and one of their players gave it to Junior before I got a chance to get over there. So I wasn’t going to put him off, I let him take it. He assisted me last time (against Watford), so he can have it this week!”

Seeing as Wilson is owned by three times as many FPL bosses, his return to penalty taking duties would be for the greater good.

Toffees Sticking Together

Seamus Coleman (5.5) has already worked out the secret of Ronald Koeman’s managerial success – he’s not Roberto Martinez.

“Every manager is different. Roberto played a more open game and made no secret of that. He liked his full-backs getting high and unfortunately at times we conceded too many goals. This manager [Koeman] wants us to be solid first and then build on that with the quality attacking players.”

Phil Jagielka (5.1) agrees.

“If you look at it as a back six or seven and include the keeper with Gaz (Barry) and Gana (Gueye), and then look at the players ahead of them, our destructive players, if they turn up on the day they are nearly impossible to keep a hold of. That is the role we’ve got now, we need to make sure we give them the platform and when they do, they come up with the magic it wins us the game.”

The worry for the 4.8% of FPL managers owning Coleman is that this stress on being a defender could seriously dent his attacking threat – he has one goal and no assists from his five starts thus far. And the 8% backing Leighton Baines (5.5) will now be making plans for an exodus after the left-back was ruled out of the trip to Burnley.

Puel Protective Of Austin Powers

Great news for the 7.5% of Fantasy Premier League managers currently aboard the Charlie Austin (6.5) bandwagon – his boss, Claude Puel, is not going to start him in every match.

The Southampton striker is currently the fifth most popular transfer target of this Gameweek, and it looks like Puel will be saving his in-form star (four goals and an assist from his last four league outings) for domestic duty.

The coach started by stating the obvious about the often-injured Austin…

“Charlie is not an endurance player.”

…which is like describing Diego Costa as ‘more handy than Gandhi’.

But then he got to the heart of the matter.

“It’s important he doesn’t play all the games with the team because after it is an injury and it’s important we don’t lose Charlie. I think many players can score in every game and not just Charlie, but Charlie at this moment is very interesting and important for us.”

Aside from a trip to Hull, the Saints have a tricky run of fixtures ahead, with Man City away and home matches against Chelsea, Liverpool and Everton.

But a well-rested Austin is raising hopes that form can trump fixtures – he saw action as a substitute in Milan tonight, ahead of the Eithad visit.

Pickford Praise Suggests Vito Veto

There’s a bit of a vogue for cheap and cheerful keepers this season – three of the top five most popular cost less than 5.0.

Sunderland’s Jordan Pickford (4.0) is one of them and only fellow budget boy Tom Heaton (4.6) has made more saves than his 31.

Manager David Moyes has already seen enough to think Pickford will end up an England international.

“I remember Joe Hart at Shrewsbury and was recommended to sign him. I also knew about (Jack) Butland when he was young, and we were always in and around the English goalkeepers. Jordan is definitely in that bracket now. Some of them don’t always progress as they should, but I think Jordan has every chance, and it’s a huge help that he’s playing in the first team here. He’s a bit of a leader as well, although because he’s young, he’s not quite the confidence to be strong enough yet. But he’s been thrown in and has made some terrific saves for the team.”

Music to Pickford’s ears, no doubt. And nails down the blackboard for previous number one Vito Mannone (4.4) as an arm injury sustained in September continues to keep him sidelined.

Intriguingly, Moyes also goes on to discuss Pickford’s future at the club – acknowledging that he fully expects the big clubs to be circling.

“The top clubs will be looking at Jordan, and I’d expect them to be. That’s what happens. I’ve said that on the journey of building football clubs, sometimes you have to sell players on…I don’t think we’d ever be in a hurry to sell Jordan, and if we do, then we know we’ve got a bit of a commodity with him being a young England goalkeeper.”

If you’ve been avoiding Pickford to this point for fear of a Mannone recall, these latest comments from Moyes may just extinguish such doubts.

Will Moyes shelve Pickford when the Italian is fully fit? Such a move would seem unlikely improve the stock in their young “commodity”.