Football
Jonathan Smith, Manchester City correspondent 7y

Man City's Sergio Aguero will 'die scoring goals' - Pep Guardiola

MANCHESTER -- Sergio Aguero is on the verge of becoming Manchester City's top goalscorer and Pep Guardiola joked the striker will "die scoring goals."

The Argentina international is just two goals from equalling the 78-year record of Eric Brook, who scored 177 goals for City in the 1930s.

A hat trick in Saturday's Premier League clash with bottom-of-the-table Crystal Palace on Saturday would see him break the record and his manager says it is just matter of time.

"He has to be proud and City has to be proud," said Guardiola. "Being a long time in one place and breaking the record is so fantastic. I'll try to help him score more goals. The record is going to be broken. Where? I don't know. Maybe at home would be better.

"I'm not thinking about tomorrow that he is going to score three goals, just that we score one, we win the game, the team plays good and we will have more chances."

There has been speculation about Aguero's future at the Etihad Stadium ever since Guardiola arrived in the summer of 2016, and it increased when he was left out of a couple of key fixtures last season.

But Aguero finished the campaign with 33 goals in all competitions and already has six goals in six games in 2017-18, including a hat trick against Watford last weekend.

"He has the character to score goals," Guardiola said. "He had it in the past with Argentina, his mother and father gave him that talent. He will die scoring goals; there is no doubt about that."

Aguero has struck up a strong relationship with Brazilian forward Gabriel Jesus, who has five goals this season.

Guardiola believes playing the two together has helped Aguero's game and also gives playmakers and wide men more options when they try to create opportunities.

"To have two strikers with their crosshairs in the box with the sense of goal -- the guy who doesn't score goals won't score goals, the guy who scores goals always score goals," said the City manager. "Last season Sergio was alone there because the quality of Kevin [De Bruyne] and [David] Silva to arrive in the box, it was completely different.

"Now there are two or three guys there to disrupt the central defenders. They can't focus on Sergio. If you focus on one, you help the other one to score goals. That is the way we have changed it a little bit."

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