Guardiola rules out signing new Man City striker in January

Stefan Bienkowski

• Updated: 19 May 2021 15:43 BST
• 3 min read

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has ruled out signing a new striker in January despite his team’s troubles in front of goal this season. 

So far this season the 2018/19 champions have scored just 18 goals in 12 Premier League matches, which is 11 fewer than table-topping Liverpool. 

A large part of that is down to injury and inconsistency from the strikers in Guardiola’s squad this season. 

Knee and hamstring injuries have limited Sergio Aguero to just three league games this season and only two goals in all competitions. 

Similarly, Gabriel Jesus also missed a number of games to injury but has since struggled to get back into form with just one goal from his last six starts in the Premier League.

However, when asked about potentially bringing in more firepower in next month’s transfer window, Guardiola suggested that it simply wasn’t an option. 

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“Absolutely not,” said the City manager. “Sergio could not play much and Gabriel has incredible numbers of minutes and goals since he came here, he is one of the best in history. 

“We took 13 corners last game so everyone can score goals. The way we defend depends on the strikers and the same happens up front. 

“The strikers have more responsibility but everyone is involved to try to win games.”

City’s lack of goalscoring has clearly had an impact on the club’s form this season, with just five wins from their first 12 league games. 

However, rather than point the finger at his two strikers, Guardiola insisted that this was a problem that his whole squad had to overcome. 

“If 25 shots is not enough, create more. The only thing is to insist, be positive and one day it will break,” he added.

“Be aggressive, put more players there and when we are able to score goals and win games the confidence will be back but the reality is comparing the 40 goals we scored in the year we won the first Premier League, 36 the next year and 35 the year after. 

“This year we have 18 so in the previous seasons we were there really well and we have to score more. Last season we scored more goals than the champions. 

“We conceded too much but we have to score more, everybody knows it but it doesn’t depend on one specific player. Everyone can score, it depends on the mentality and the desire.”