‘I’d put him right up there as one of the best ever strikers in our league’: Old-school Sergio Aguero has the mental strength, says Liverpool icon Ian Rush

• Liverpool legend Ian Rush full of praise for Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero
• Aguero has scored 20 goals so far this season across all competitions 
• The Argentine will be aiming to find the net again when City take on Chelsea

By

Joe Bernstein for The Mail on Sunday

Published:
17:30 EST, 9 February 2019

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Updated:
18:38 EST, 9 February 2019

Their affections lie on opposite sides of the title race, but Liverpool hero Ian Rush is grateful to Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero for being the saviour of No 9s around the world.

Rush feared traditional goalscorers were on their way out when stars like Michael Owen retired. But Aguero has proved otherwise. 

The Argentine’s 20 goals this season have kept City neck-and-neck with Liverpool going into their game against Chelsea on Sunday, including last weekend’s hat-trick against Arsenal.

Ian Rush believes Sergio Aguero is one of the greatest ever strikers in English football

‘I’d put him right up there as one of the best ever strikers in our league,’ said Rush, who scored a record 346 goals for Liverpool.

‘Every year people ask me who is going to be top scorer. I always say if he stays fit, Sergio Aguero. In many ways, he is like the old school strikers. He will get the tap-ins and good goals as well. He is something special.

‘The thing that stands out is he’s a natural finisher. He is a dying breed. Everyone now wants to play No 10 and score wonder goals.

‘Aguero is similar to Michael Owen in his heyday. Because they are both small, they have a low centre of gravity.

Manchester City star Aguero has scored 14 Premier League goals so far this season

MANCHESTER CITY’S ALL-TIME TOP SCORERS 

Sergio Aguero – 219 goals

Eric Brook – 177 goals

Tommy Johnson – 166 goals

Colin Bell – 153 goals

Joe Hayes, Billy Meredith – 152 goals 

Aguero, 30, has scored a record 219 goals for City and his manager Pep Guardiola will want him to add more as they chase an unprecedented quadruple. Though Gabriel Jesus will undoubtedly also play a part in City’s crowded fixture list, Aguero remains the player they turn to, as Liverpool do with Mo Salah.

‘You need mental strength as a top striker and Aguero certainly has that,’ said Rush, who will be one of the Reds legends on show against AC Milan at Anfield on March 23.

‘You are always going to miss chances and people will quickly remind you of them. You can miss five but you still have to get in the same position. When you do score, everyone forgets the ones you have missed. For that you need mental strength.’

 

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Smiles better: I saw a Liverpool team who were enjoying themselves again in their victory over Bournemouth

• Liverpool were back to their best as they beat Bournemouth 3-0 at Anfield
• Mohamed Salah’s return to the right wing gave Liverpool a major boost 
• Trent Alexander-Arnold’s comeback is another plus point for Liverpool 

By

Jermaine Jenas For The Mail On Sunday

Published:
17:32 EST, 9 February 2019

|
Updated:
17:32 EST, 9 February 2019

There has been a lot of talk about Liverpool and their nerves as we head down the stretch in this Premier League title race. 

They have dropped a few points, the gap to Manchester City has closed. Jurgen Klopp has even been acting a little differently.

I saw none of that in their victory against Bournemouth. This was Liverpool back to their best.

Liverpool were back to their best as they got the better of Bournemouth at Anfield

Klopp’s side produced a workmanlike performance to win, which you need in a title race, but there was also so much flair to their play. The players had smiles on their faces, they looked to be having fun. That would not happen if they were feeling the pressure.

I really enjoyed seeing Mohamed Salah back on the right with Roberto Firmino through the middle. Salah has played down the middle a lot recently but having him out wide gets the best out of everyone. You get a better Salah, you get a better Firmino. You get a better overall performance.

Salah was brilliant. His goals are one thing, but it is his influence on the game as a whole that is the most important factor.

Mohamed Salah’s return to the right wing was hugely beneficial for Liverpool

That’s why I prefer him on the right. Players like Salah, if you play them down the middle, will still get their goals. But it has an impact on those around him. Firmino then starts to drop deeper than he needs to and stops having as much of an influence on the game by linking play and getting forward.

The other effect of having Salah out wide is to strike fear into the hearts of the opponents. A lot of that is down to Liverpool playing on the front foot with the incredible speed of those three — Sadio Mane on one side and Salah on the other — getting in behind defences.

Without that threat, full backs think they can get forward. They don’t have it in their heads that they have got Salah running at them. When he does, it makes a huge difference. Liverpool pinned Bournemouth back for nearly 80 minutes of Saturday’s game.

Trent Alexander-Arnold made his return from injury to round off a great day for Liverpool

The other impressive aspect of their performance was the midfield. Fabinho spots danger all over the pitch and breaks it all up, while Georginio Wijnaldum was brilliant on the ball — creatively and in support. He took his goal magnificently. It was one of Naby Keita’s better games, too. Everything just functioned well.

And Trent Alexander-Arnold made his return for Liverpool to round off a great day for the league leaders.

Everyone has commented on Trent getting injured after Liverpool let Nathaniel Clyne go. But I don’t think that has been an issue. I have been impressed with James Milner in the full back position.

The only problem with the switch is that you then don’t have Milner in midfield — the leader in the middle of the park. With Alexander-Arnold coming back, Klopp can now push Milner forward again.

With Alexander-Arnold coming back, Klopp can now push James Milner forward again

Liverpool might not have the depth of Manchester City’s squad but I still believe they have enough for this title race as well as the Champions League campaign.

Bayern Munich will be a tough tie but they are not exactly flying in the Bundesliga. It is a good time for Liverpool to play them.

Dejan Lovren is on the verge of a return and Adam Lallana made his first Premier League start since November last week. Jordan Henderson was back on the bench after injury. I think they have more than enough depth.

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They had to rein in their natural instincts and dig as deep as they can ever have done in the longer form of the game. But Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler gave England hope on Saturday of escaping from their Caribbean nightmare with at least a little of their pride intact.

The first day of the final Test of this most chastening of series began with an all too familiar tale of yet another revamped England top order failing and leaving them in danger of the most embarrassing of whitewashes.

But it ended with two of England’s brightest and most positive talents adapting their games to the situation, playing for time as much as runs in putting overs into tiring West Indian legs and, yes, batting like proper Test cricketers.

Ben Stokes made the most of a reprieve as he hit an unbeaten 62 in St Lucia on Saturday

The England all-rounder hit six fours in a dogged innings that lasted more than three hours

Jos Buttler also passed 50 as England fought back on the first day of the third Test

They were still there at the close having added 124 in 35.1 hard-fought overs even though Stokes was actually given out and had made it all the way back to the dressing room before being reprieved in an extraordinary incident towards the close.

Stokes, who so nearly missed this Test with a heel bruised when he trod on a stone on the Rodney Bay beach during an England fitness session here, was dejected when he tried to pull a short ball from Alzarri Joseph and struck it straight back to the bowler.

He left the Darren Sammy Stadium outfield and had disappeared from view, with Jonny Bairstow on his way to the middle, when Joseph belatedly and unsatisfactorily, was found to have overstepped by TV umpire Chris Gaffeney. The sooner the ICC sort out the mess caused by on-field umpires failing to call no-balls the better.

Stokes, allowed to continue a welcome return to batting form, was quickly summoned back and took his score to 62 with Buttler on 67 in England’s 231 for four before a belated finish with seven overs unbowled by a West Indies attack seemingly learning nothing from captain Jason Holder’s enforced absence here.

Two old-fashioned West Indian thrashings in a series England were expected to dominate led to a very old-fashioned reaction when Joe Root and Trevor Bayliss made 80s-like illogical changes ahead of this third Test and then told a top three that keep on failing to defend for dear life.

And even though they desperately tried to build a platform on what turned out to be a near perfect batting pitch by going along at fewer than two an over in the first session they couldn’t keep out this rampant West Indian attack.

Nothing was more depressing for England than the sight of the man they brought back here against all cricketing sense and then saw him make the same mistakes that already looked as though they had ended his international career.

Buttler hit nine fours as he and Stokes led the fightback at the Darren Sammy Cricket Ground

Stokes enjoyed a reprieve after he was caught off a no-ball in the evening session on Saturday

It was painful to watch Keaton Jennings trying to cope with the pace of this throwback of a West Indian attack before he was put out of his misery after 43 agonising deliveries.

Jennings, recalled as the only spare batsman in a bowler-laden squad once England had decided to give the gloves back to Jonny Bairstow, could have been dismissed twice in one over from Kemar Roach.

First he should have been given out on three lbw by umpire Kumar Dharmasena and then, even more frustratingly for West Indies, he edged straight through the hands of Roston Chase at third slip.

Yet all that did was delay the inevitable when Jennings could not stop himself getting out in exactly the same manner that has plagued his Test career, driving loosely with stiff legs and his weight on the back foot outside off-stump to the first ball after the drinks break and providing slip practice.

It was not even rapid fast bowling that did for him either but the inexperienced figure of Keemo Mandela Angus Paul, an all-round replacement for Holder, who struck with his first ball of lively but far from express pace.

Keaton Jennings’ recall ended predictably as the opener was out driving loosely for only eight

Paul’s middle names are intriguing. Mandela needs no explanation but the fact he is called Angus and was born at almost exactly the time England’s Angus Fraser was destroying West Indies in Trinidad on the 1998 tour suggests his parents are fans of nagging medium pace.

Certainly Paul did not need Fraser’s capacity for accuracy to lure Jennings into another act of self-destruction that exposed England’s folly in bringing him back here and making Ben Foakes the unfortunate fall-guy of their attempt to regain the right balance to their side.

At least Joe Denly was moved to the more familiar position of three even though Bairstow had shown he was capable of batting there by making a hundred in Colombo and a very good half century in Antigua.

But it has to be questionable that Denly, wherever he bats, is going to carve out a Test career at 32 and his selection for this tour after looking out of his depth in the warm-up matches in Sri Lanka is looking more and more like a mistake.

Admittedly, Denly would never have faced bowling at Kent of this calibre, particularly as he has spent much of his time in the championship second division and he too struggled before suffering another cheap demise.

On the stroke of lunch Denly survived a loud appeal for a catch behind down the legside off the extra speed of Shannon Gabriel, who consistently surpassed 90 miles per hour, but umpire Rod Tucker rightly adjudicated that his glove was off the bat handle when it touched ball.

The West Indies players celebrate after England captain Joe Root is caught after making 15

Again, it was only a temporary reprieve as Denly was palpably lbw to Gabriel, who took 13 wickets here against Sri Lanka last year, and wasted a review when appearing to be encouraged to challenge Tucker’s decision by captain Joe Root.

That came just seven balls after Rory Burns became the second victim of the 20-year-old Paul, best known up to now for his Mankad dismissal against Zimbabwe that helped West Indies to the 2016 Under 19 World Cup, when he too was trapped right in front.

The only difference this time was that Dharmasena inexplicably failed to give the decision and was rescued by technology.

That left Root and Buttler attempting to repair all too familiar damage after England had lost their third toss of the series having won all three in Sri Lanka before Christmas.

The two made a nervous start, Buttler being dropped on nought by a combination second and third slips, but, just as life appeared to be getting easier, Root gave it away slashing at a wide ball from Joseph and England looked in big trouble.

That the picture was more rosy at the close was totally down to Buttler and Stokes but England still have much to do if they are going to post a total big enough to dictate terms at a venue that has seen four draws in its only six Tests.

Buttler and Stokes make their way off the field after an unbeaten partnership of 124

England are playing for little more for pride after falling to series defeat in West Indies

But at least they showed guts and gumption, with the score rate remaining under three an over all day, and after all that happened in Barbados and Antigua that is at least a start. 

It was a short-lived reprieve, though, as he flirted with the first delivery sent down by the recalled Paul, and was grabbed behind by Darren Bravo, immediately after a drinks break and a change of match ball.

England’s attempts to show greater application were laudable but Rory Burns and Joe Denly followed in successive overs after crawling along at two an over.

Both went leg before – Burns to a well-judged review after the skilful Paul shaped the ball in from wide of the crease, and Denly to an ill-judged one after Shannon Gabriel pinned him back.

Root survived a huge scare second ball when Paul swung one back in but he was gone before a delayed tea via an ambitious swish at a widish delivery from Joseph. 

What was most depressing for Jennings, who has made two centuries in the sub-continent predominantly against spin, is that he was out driving loosely and is clearly not learning from his mistakes.