Pep Guardiola has no intention of taking Sergio Aguero off penalty-taking duty and backed his star striker to step up if required against Barcelona in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Aguero missed his second penalty in a week in City’s 1-1 draw against Everton on Saturday, following his failure from 12 yards for Argentina against Paraguay in World Cup qualifying.
The former Atletico Madrid striker also missed two penalties in one match against Steaua Bucharest in a Champions League qualifier in August.
But City boss Guardiola, who also saw Kevin De Bruyne fail from the spot against Everton, is trusting Aguero to make his own decision about who assumes penalty duties.
“I love the players who have the personality to take the penalties,” he told reporters.
“I love it, I’m sorry. I’ll never say to a one player, ‘No, sorry, give it to another one’. He’s intelligent when he’s not [got] big confidence like this, to take a step back and another guy is going to take the penalty.”
Asked if Aguero has the personality to take a penalty at Camp Nou, Guardiola merely responded: “Yes.”
Aguero was not included in City’s starting XI against Everton, with Guardiola explaining that the travel during the international break and not a calf problem was behind that decision.
“Yeah, it was the international break,” he added.
“[He was] playing far, far away from here. He arrived, he had just one training session. A lot of games. I love all the players trying to play.”
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