Say What?

Pep backs Aguero, Firmino tracks back at the front and Austin’s woken up to water.

Meanwhile, Bolasie and Shaqiri are aiming high, while Oviedo gives us the low-down on Everton’s defensive duties.

Here’s the pick of the quotes from planet football this week.

Food For Thought On Sergio

All good things must come to an end – just ask the BBC’s Bake Off team – but over the years someone’s brought even more comfort to millions of us than a bunch of very nice middle-class people doing stuff with flour in a tent.

His name is Sergio Aguero (13.1), and in five glorious Fantasy Premier League campaigns he’s dished up a show-stopping 888 points.

This season’s return of 39 looks positively half-baked by comparison, leaving 43.3% of FPL managers chewing on the big question – is it time for Sergio to be scone from their sides?

All right, enough of the baking puns, but Aguero hasn’t scored in eight matches for club and country, missed two penalties and been benched three times. And when you factor in Pep Guardiola’s taste for binning previously untouchable talent – Joe Hart anyone? – we’re all left wondering what exactly he’s cooking up for Sergio.

Pep seems to be in no doubt.

I want to be clear again. I am so happy with Sergio and hopefully he can stay for a long time here. I want from deep in my heart he can stay here and play with us. He is a special player, he is a striker who scores millions of goals in his career. I know for strikers it depends on the moment, but we cannot forget how many goals he scores for us.

So form is temporary, class is permanent and Sergio’s going nowhere. Everyone can breathe again.

Until you read what Kevin De Bruyne (10.7) has to say about the demands Guardiola places on his players to adapt to his way – in this instance, being used as a ‘false nine’ at the expense of…Sergio Aguero.

I’m not used to playing it. I did it a couple of times (previously). Obviously it’s not my best position but I’ll do what the coach asks me to do and do my job.”

Aguero’s job, under Guardiola, includes a lot more pressing. And if anyone struggles to do Pep’s bidding satisfactorily, De Bruyne is under no illusions as to what comes next.

There are always new challenges in football. You just need to adapt otherwise you won’t fit in. And if you don’t fit in then you will have to go somewhere else.

Chilling words to put the heat on Aguero.

Firmino On The Defensive

Perception is everything. Mention ‘pressing’ regarding Aguero and we go into mini-meltdown. But it’s just part of the job for Roberto Firmino (8.5) at Liverpool.

Any position in which I play, I will always do my best and strive to be better. I will always play with attacking intent in my position, but I am always looking to help my teammates in any way I can. I am an attacker; however, I don’t forget about defending. It’s always in my mind to help my teammates the best I can. I try to do both on the pitch – attacking and defending – never forgetting either responsibility.

It’s not exactly doing him any harm – while Sergio has stumbled to just two points from the last three Gameweeks, Firmino has 20 from a goal and two assists. And the Brazilian’s workload seems to be taking a lot of the defensive strain off both Philippe Coutinho and Sadio Mane, helping them to 15 and 17 points respectively over those three matches.

With Liverpool facing a very enticing run of fixtures from now until a New Year’s Eve home clash with Man City, the quality of Mersey isn’t likely to be strained any time soon.

Saints Alive And Learning Fast

Things are pretty peachy on the south coast too.

Nathan Redmond’s (5.9) popularity and price (6.1) peaked in GW3, as the prospect of the midfielder-turned-striker banging in more goals like the one he hit against Watford on the opening day of the season proved too hard to resist for 482,000+ managers.

He promptly blanked all the way through to GW8, but now has back-to-back goals and another 21,000 FPL managers to his name this week alone.

The England U21 star is keen to stress his forward move is still a work in progress, however.

I’m learning a new position. I’m playing up front. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will I transferring into becoming a striker. I’m learning daily in training and learning during the games as well. He (coach Claude Puel) made it clear he wasn’t going to play with wide players, but he also made it clear that he’d watched me before and seen me play, so he knew I had the potential to play there (up front). It was about trying it in pre-season and once it came to the first couple of games of the season he told me I was going to be playing there. It was either adapt and learn or sit on the sidelines, and I’m never going to shy away from a challenge.

If Redmond is all for learning new tricks, his strike partner Charlie Austin (6.6) remains resolutely old school.

“When I was growing up they never had forward players like Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino. The problem now is everyone wants to be a No10. Why doesn’t anyone want to be a centre forward that stands up there, heads it, puts his body in the way and attacks crosses coming in? That is a No9.”

Not that Charlie hasn’t embraced certain aspects of modernity, particularly when it concerns his (previously) intimate knowledge of a club’s treatment table.

Jose Fonte was the one. He’s one of the best athletes I’ve ever seen. Every day he’d say ‘drink plenty of water’. He lives by it. He’s adamant professional athletes should never get muscle tears. So I’ve lost body fat and put muscle on. It was a big eye opener. I am old fashioned. You can get stuck in your ways. I knew I had to change. What did I do before? It wasn’t anything over the top. I’d come in after a game, have a takeaway and a couple of pints. Now it is a case of having it at the right time. If you are happy off the pitch and your life is in order, you will get your rewards.

Redmond and Austin face Chelsea at home and then travel to Hull before the November international break and look nailed-on for starts – unless Charlie succumbs to a particularly evil prawn bhuna.

The only potential spanner in their works could come from new man Sofiane Boufal (6.8), who scored his first, and winning, goal for the club in the EFL Cup victory over Sunderland this week.

Puel has called for patience with their record signing.

I am not surprised for his goal because he has the technical ability to make this situation but it’s fantastic for him and for all the squad, and very important for the future of the squad. I think it is a good time to stay patient with him because it is his first game to come back and he doesn’t have the good physical level and he can make progress for the future. We must work on his physical level and also on the play, but sometimes he can do a situation that is fantastic.

It’s early days for Redmond’s 6.5% ownership base to be worried, but if Boufal makes a habit of scoring key goals…

Perfect Ten For Bolasie

Yannick Bolasie (6.0) has never scored more than five Premier League goals in a season, so Everton boss Ronald Koeman setting him a target of ten for the season last week seemed a touch ambitious.

Bolasie responded by notching his first for the club in the 2-1 defeat at Burnley, and he seems up for the Dutchman’s challenge.

I’ve not been thinking about it [getting off the mark]. Since I have been here, I have been creating chances and I am happy doing that. But as the manager says, he wants a little bit more from the attackers around Romelu Lukaku. At Burnley I have scored, so that is a start.

His link with Lukaku (9.7) is certainly bearing fruit – the four goals they have combined to score is the best partnership in the league.

With that goal and three assists, and home matches against West Ham and Swansea to come over the next three Gameweeks, 6.0 is a small price to pay for some big potential.

Everton’s strong start to the season has been built around tactical flexibility and a more defensive role for the full backs.

The 4.9% of managers sticking by Seamus Coleman (5.5) – and the 6.3% still on the injured Leighton Baines (5.4) – might therefore want to look away now rather than read what Bryan Oviedo (4.4) has to say on the matter.

When we have possession and are on the attack you have to be a very clever full-back because we create the balance of the team. Yes, I like to play going forward but there are moments when I need to be more controlled. If we are attacking on the right then we need balance on the left and we need to work together as a team. Maybe I am not expected to play that differently. It is the same aspects but maybe I have to be more concentrated on the defensive side because the manager and his staff like us to be very good on the defensive balance.

With just the one goal and an assist between the three of them thus far, that’s slim pickings from this particular assortment of Toffees.

Shaqiri Shooting Upwards

Slim has often been the watchword with Stoke’s mini-marvel Xherdan Shaqiri (6.4) – in terms of goal output, at least.

The Swiss international managed three in his debut season last year, but is already up to that mark in a mere five starts this time round.

A spectacular double at Hull last week caught everyone’s eye – Shaqiri’s included.

Most of the time my goals are really beautiful and I watch them time and time again. Of course everybody wants to score more goals. Every midfielder would love to score 10 or 12 goals a season but this is a tough league. I know I have the quality to shoot well and I’m a player prepared to take a risk and gamble. If I see a space I will shoot from anywhere.

His manager, Mark Hughes, liked the odd screamer himself when he was a player and he’s expecting more of the same from the former Bayern man.

Last year he didn’t score as many as maybe he thought he should have done, and we probably agreed with him last year, for the talent that he has he probably needed to score more goals, but I think he has matched that total already. So the feeling is that there is more to come from Shaq. He looks like he has got to grips with the Premier League and, as a consequence, he’s more positive in games.

With Swansea at home and West Ham away before the November break, the newly-productive Shaq attack could be music to Sparky’s ears.