Pellegrini: Aguero better than Suarez

City boss Manuel Pellegrini rates Sergio Aguero ahead of Liverpool star Luis Suarez.

Manuel Pellegrini has declared that if he was offered Player of the Season Luis Suarez in a swop for Sergio Aguero, he’d refuse.

The Argentinian striker is back in the Manchester City squad for today’s title crunch at Liverpool after missing the last eight Premier League games with hamstring problems.

In the meantime, his Uruguayan rival has surged to the top of the scoring charts and is just one short of the magical 30.

But Pellegrini is unshakeable in his long-held assessment that it’s Aguero, not Suarez, who is the world’s third-best player behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

“I continue to think that,” he says.

“I think a lot of Suarez. He scores goals but he also plays a lot for the team. But if you tell me I could change him for Sergio, I’d say no.

“Suarez has played for the whole season. Sergio has had a difficult season with injuries.”

Aguero had racked up 13 goals in 11 appearances when he was injured in the 5-1 victory at Tottenham at the end of January.

Since then City have been overtaken by Brendan Rodgers’ side, who now top the goalscoring table as well as the Premier League.

“I think they have scored more because they’ve played two games more than us,” says Pellegrini. “We will see after we’ve played our two games which team has scored more.

“And Sergio is always a very important player. I am absolutely sure that any team who played with Sergio would be improved.”

And, in a thinly-veiled sideswipe at Chelsea who have scored 25 fewer than Liverpool and 19 fewer than City, he adds: “It would be very disappointing for football if the team that scored the most goals didn’t win the league.

“I think that the most attractive football the more goals you can score should be rewarded.

“I’m not saying it’s not important to defend very well, but I think that big teams must play as big teams.”

Pellegrini is also dismissive of claims by his two main rivals, Brendan Rodgers and Jose Mourinho, that their clubs are under no pressure to win the title.

“I don’t think it’s true,” he says. “Maybe they are covering themselves for if they don’t win the title but I don’t believe either of those managers feel that is the reality.

“I have an absolutely different philosophy. This profession is about pressure. I don’t believe you can be in this profession without it.

“I don’t know what their players think but I’m sure if I said to my players we don’t have any pressure to win because this is my first season here in England, I don’t think that would work.

“I don’t think the Chelsea or Liverpool players believe they don’t have pressure to win the title. Not when they are so close to the top of the table.”