MANCHESTER CITY lead Liverpool in Premier League goals and possession – but they won’t win the title with Gabriel Jesus up front.
Pep Guardiola’s side create chances for fun thanks to the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva.
Gabriel Jesus has struggled to find the net consistently and it has hurt Man City
City lead the league in shots taken, possession and crosses per 90 minutes, with De Bruyne setting up his team-mates for 4.1 shooting chances per match alone.
But because of Jesus’ wastefulness in front of goal, they are now 14 points behind Liverpool – who have a game in hand, too – with Sergio Aguero often out injured.
The Brazilian, 23, has a conversion rate of just 15 per cent – scoring with just one in every 6.5 efforts.
Compared to the rest of the the Premier League’s leading marksmen, that’s simply not good enough.
For example, Jamie Vardy – the league’s top scorer – has taken three FEWER shots than Jesus, but scored more than twice as many.
The Leicester star is finding the net with 35 per cent of his efforts, while Danny Ings’ 12 goals have come at a 27 per cent clip.
Sadio Mane, Harry Kane, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Chris Wood and team-mate Aguero have all scored as many or more goals at over 20 per cent efficiency.
In fact, of all strikers to have scored eight or more goals this season, Jesus’ 15 per cent conversion rate is ahead of only Raul Jiminez’s 12 per cent.
Jesus has mustered eight goals in the league this season – including both in the 2-1 win over Everton – but it could be so many more if he’d been a little more clinical.
In fact, City may not be “already out of the title race” as Guardiola conceded last month, had he shown a ruthless edge.
Another glaring issue is the reigning champions’ inability to find the net with their head.
As mentioned earlier, City lead the league in crosses attempted – with a sky-high 25.6 per game.
But they’ve managed to score just SIX times from headers, adding up to just 11.1 per cent of all their goals.
City have scored 56 times in the Prem this term, seven more than leaders Liverpool and more than twice as many as the league average of 27.
But the Reds have managed to find the back of the net 11 times from headers – a much higher 23.4 per cent of all goals.
With Jesus frequently being tasked with leading the line for City, Guardiola might have to raid the transfer market for a clinical target man to salvage anything from the 2019-20 season.
If not, the title race really could be done and dusted…
Pep Guardiola reckons Gabriel Jesus can be his hero in Manchester derby
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
