Manchester City's Sergio Aguero Tells Rivals: Come and have a go

Posted Sunday, August 14, 2011 by Express.co.uk

Manchester City's Sergio Aguero Tells Rivals: Come and have a go
Sergio Aguero has warned the Premier League hatchet men that they don’t frighten him

SERGIO AGUERO has warned the Premier League hatchet men that they don’t frighten him – and in any case the £38million Argentinian will see them coming.

Manchester City’s record buy admits to operating in the shadows to perfect his goalscoring art.

The former Atletico Madrid hitman, expected to be unleashed against new boys Swansea City tomorrow night, has revealed how he has become one of Europe’s most potent finishers.

Aguero said: “I discovered that I can play according to the defender’s shadow.

When it’s sunny and the defender arrives just when the ball comes to me, I see the shadow and move the other way.

I started doing it in training and it works. It also works at night under floodlights.”

A tough upbringing in a shanty town a few miles from the Argentinian capital, Buenos Aires, hardened him for any rough stuff once he started to make his way in the game with Independiente.

Even a debut at the age of 15 years and 35 days – the youngest ever in the Argentinian league – didn’t worry him.

“Defenders go in hard to intimidate you. They think that with two kicks this guy won’t want the ball any more. But if they kick me I still want the ball,” he says.

“I don’t buckle. If they give it to me I tell them to try again. Defenders try to measure your fear.”

His biggest upset was moving to Spain and Atletico Madrid in a deal worth around £20m when he was still only 17.

“My first year was difficult,” he added. “There was always something being said about what wasn’t working but I kept calm. I tried to adapt and get to know the league. I gained confidence.

“I never thought of leaving, even though at first it didn’t go the way I hoped. But my team-mates spoke to me. Maxi Rodriguez (now at Liverpool) said to me, ‘Stay calm because the first year is always awful and things will go well in the second year’.

“At the beginning, I thought that as soon as I have a couple of free days I will go to see my friends. They said that it was because of being far from my family, from my friends, that it’s different, a lot of things. And I believed it.

“But I came to feel part of the club. I felt that people wanted me, just as they had at Independiente. I didn’t think about leaving Atletico for another club, but staying with them until one day I go back to Argentina.”
Inevitably, Aguero’s skills and goalscoring ability drew comparisons with his fellow Argentinian Lionel Messi.

But he insisted: “It bothers me that they compare me with Messi because we’re different. There are very few similarities between us. I don’t even know what they are. Messi is Messi, Aguero is Aguero, Fernando Torres is Fernando Torres.”

In fact, he believes his style is closer to that of the man he has been bought to replace at City, Carlos Tevez.

“When I began to concentrate on Tevez, I noticed that my movements were similar. The way he held players off, his body strength,” Aguero said.

“I watch matches quite a lot. I learn, see how defenders mark, the spaces they leave, and prepare myself for when they are my rivals.

“Where I grew up there were rough pitches. Only the local kids played there, but for the leagues they came from other districts and it was wild.”