Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero (£12.0m) partners Raúl Jiménez (£6.9m) up front to complete our Team of the Season for 2018/19.
The Argentinian went past 200 FPL points for the third time in his Premier League career this year.
His 21 goals led City to back-to-back titles and brought joy to many Fantasy managers along the way.
Aguero came second in our forwards poll achieving 28.65% of all votes cast, fending off the challenge of the chasing pack.
Player | Number of votes | Share of vote |
Raúl Jiménez | 1,216 | 36.21% |
Sergio Aguero | 962 | 28.65% |
Callum Wilson | 577 | 17.18% |
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang | 367 | 10.93% |
Jamie Vardy | 189 | 5.63% |
Alexandre Lacazette | 47 | 1.4% |
THE STATISTICS
A total points tally of 201 saw Aguero finish as the second highest scoring forward behind Arsenal’s Pierre–Emerick Aubameyang (£10.8m), who managed 205 in his first full season in the Premier League.
His colleague Raheem Sterling (£11.7m) outscored him for the second consecutive season too but both had superb campaigns.
The double-up was a popular strategy used by many managers. One area in which Aguero did get the better of Sterling was bonus points, racking up 26 to Sterling’s 25.
The forward’s 21 goals left him just one shy in the race for the Golden Boot but he chipped in with his fair share of assists (11).
When you factor in that he missed five matches in 2018/19, you can’t ask for much more than 32 attacking returns from 33 appearances from any player.
Furthermore, Aguero recorded a better points-per-match figure than any other forward (6.1).
Crucially, he has now scored 20 or more goals in each of the last five seasons. The term ‘FPL legend’ gets mentioned too often but Aguero certainly is undeniably one of them.
Shots in the box is a key metric fantasy managers look to when assessing forwards. Fulham’s Aleksandar Mitrovic (£6.3m) registered the most in the league (96) with Aguero ranked second with 92.
He had a chance every 21 minutes on average over the course of the campaign, more often than any other forward who started regularly.
In terms of expected goal involvement (xGI), Aguero’s 22.43 was bettered only by Aubameyang (26.65) among forwards.
SEASON RECAP
Aguero blanked in Gameweek 1 away at Arsenal which set the tone for the campaign, as he went on to score just six goals away from home.
However, the Etihad Stadium continued to be a happy hunting ground for the forward, as we found out in Gameweek 2.
It was a match that continues to be remembered controversially as a certain journalist from the Guardian suggested that Aguero was going to be benched in favour of Gabriel Jesus for the home game against Huddersfield.
We all know what happened next, a start for Aguero, three goals, an assist and three bonus points for his best Gameweek score of the entire season (20). Nine months on, some of us are still seething having taken the armband off him at the last minute.
Even after the 20-point haul, Aguero was incredibly consistent at home. He blanked in just one of the games he started in front of his home fans, his last one in Gameweek 37 against Leicester. In fact, he was a banker for the armband when playing at home regardless of the opponent.
An injury forced Aguero to sit out Gameweeks 14 through to 17 but he picked up from where he left off when he returned to action.
His most devastating spell came in Double Gameweek 25 and Gameweek 26 when he scored hat tricks at home to Arsenal and Chelsea. A hat trick of hat tricks for the season.
Somewhat surprisingly, he recorded just five double-digit hauls but when he did produce them, they were big.
Double Gameweek 32 was a frustrating one for Aguero captainers when he went off injured before sixty minutes against Fulham in the first game (after scoring and assisting), then missed the home tie against Cardiff.
He finished the season strongly scoring rare away goals against Burnley in Gameweek 36 and Brighton on the final day to seal the title.
OWNERSHIP
During pre-season, Aguero was perhaps a little overlooked, as England’s World Cup stars largely dominated the ownership.
However, a brace in a 2-0 Community Shield win over Chelsea a week before Gameweek 1 saw a host of managers ripping up their latest draft to fit the £11.0m man into their plans. He went into the opening weekend highly owned in 1,452,447 teams.
Following the hat-trick against Huddersfield, his ownership had more than doubled to 3,007,762 by Gameweek 7 and his price jumped £0.4m to £11.4m.
His ownership reached its peak in Gameweek 13 (3,191,635) after he returned 13 points against Southampton and Gameweek 11 and scored in the Manchester derby in Gameweek 12. It was unlucky for some number 13 though as he blanked against West Ham and then missed the next four matches through injury.
By the time Gameweek 21 came around, the City forward’s backers had dropped to 1,314,797, the lowest it would be all season. His price and ownership rose steadily thereafter with his consistent returns, reaching £12.0m and 2.7m respectively by Gameweek 38.
THE PROSPECTS
Will Jesus get more game time in 2019/20 at Aguero’s expense? That is probably still the key question assessing the future of Manchester City’s attack.
Aguero turns 31 this weekend but he’s showing no signs of slowing down. A player of Jesus’ talent isn’t going to be content warming the bench for another season, he will be pushing Aguero for starts next season.
If Aguero continues in the same vein as he did this season though, he will remain one of the first names on Pep Guardiola’s team sheet next season. Jesus may have to bide his time a little bit longer or maybe even look elsewhere if he’s not willing to be patient.
It will be interesting to see what FPL towers do regarding Aguero’s price for next season. A rise is likely after the season he had but by how much? Perhaps £12.0m seems the most likely price for him.
City will be the favourites to win the league again next year and after they scored 95 goals this season, it makes sense to include their striker in our Fantasy teams. Pre-season may give us a clue as to how much game time Jesus is going to get next season.
If Aguero starts in the Community Shield and performs well, he will again be a popular pick in Gameweek 1 teams.
4 years, 10 months ago
I can't wait anymore
Give us FPL 🙂