Manchester City: How Will the Citizens Compensate for the Loss of Carlos Tevez?

Prior to Carlos Tevez's announcement of his desire to finally leave Manchester City and return to Argentina, Manchester City were having a fairly good summer.

The FA Cup win had boosted the morale of the squad greatly and Manchester City officially became a trophy-winning club in the modern era. Their third place league finish also strengthened their claim to being the third best club in the Premiership, ahead of Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham.

As a result, Manchester City could now attract players to the club with more than just money, but also with the promise that incoming players would be joining a winning club with a recent history of winning trophies.

Although this failed to woo Alexis Sanchez, who decided to make Barcelona his new home, it succeeded in bringing Gael Clichy, who is arguably one of the best left backs in the world despite a difficult season last year with the Gunners.

And if recent reports are to be believed, Manchester City looks likely to bring in Samir Nasri using the same promise of money and success.

But with Manchester City's top-scorer, captain and MVP Carlos Tevez gone, how will the team rebound? How will they fill in the massive gap left by his exit from their offense?

Manchester City certainly have numerous strikers who can take over the striker spot vacated by Tevez. Presently, Dzeko, Balotelli, Adebayor, Santa Cruz, Bellamy and Jo all remain contracted to the club, giving Mancini a whopping six strikers he can play as Manchester City's lone striker.

But can any of these strikers be anywhere near as effective as Tevez was in this role?

Part of what made Tevez a perfect match for Manchester City was that Manchester City played an offense that frequently relied on individual brilliance for goals and Tevez was regularly able to supply this brilliance for Manchester City game after game.

Looking at Mancini's striker options, none of the options stick out as players who can do this.

Balotelli seems to be the most individually brilliant player of the bunch, but he has yet to discover how to consistently perform and score on a regular basis for Manchester City.

Dzeko has been a rather big disappointment since transferring form Wolfsburg, scoring only twice in 15 appearances with Manchester City and doesn't look remotely ready to take English football by storm.

Of the remaining four strikers, three were on loan last season, indicating that they don't fit in Mancini's plans, and the fourth striker, Jo, failed to score in 12 league appearances and is little more than a backup striker for Mancini.

Adebayor showed in his spell at Real Madrid that he still has the talent to be a very powerful target man, but it seems neither the striker nor Mancini are interested in patching things up and giving each other another chance. This is especially evident in how desperate Adebayor is to return to Madrid on a permanent basis.

So where does Mancini go from here? Manchester City's swap deal for Eto'o has already fallen through, so it's unlikely that they'll be able to work a deal for the Italian striker. 

Does Mancini join Harry Redknapp in the hunt to attempt to lure every decent striker to his club? Or should he instead look at his current options and work to transform them into effective strikers?

Being a football fan who despises wasteful spending, there are very few strikers which I think Mancini could bring in and really improve his striker options. In fact, Guiseppe Rossi or Sergio Aguero are probably the only available strikers in the market that I could see really being an improvement over Mancini's current options.

If Mancini's unable to bring in either one, I think Mancini will have to pick his poison; he'll either have to swallow his pride and ask Adebayor to trust him once again and lead the line for Manchester City, or trust that the young and unpredictable Mario Balotelli can be molded into an effective and prolific striker. I personally don't believe Dzeko can be trusted to adjust to start, even if he has the talent to be a truly great striker.

As of now, the chances of Manchester City recovering from Tevez's loss look slim, but this could be the moment when Mancini truly proves himself to be a great manager. We'll have to wait and see.

What do you think? Should Mancini go out and buy a new striker, or trust his current options? If you believe he should buy, should he buy Rossi or Aguero, or is there another striker who you believe I'm forgetting to mention? And if you believe he should trust his current options, which of Manchester City's current top three strikers (Balotelli, Adebayor, and Dzeko) do you believe should start? I look forward to hearing your opinion on what will likely be the biggest issue for Manchester City next season.