The most startling thing about his performances are the lack of desire. It's like he has almost resigned himself to not scoring against the big teams and is content to wait to statpad against the likes of Ipswich in Game week 2.
He reminds me a bit of Lukaku. Despite all the bravado, deep down you get the feeling he doesn't have that much confidence in himself. And despite the physical strength, there is a tendency to want to stay away from any physical duels.
He needs a kick up the backside. City desperately need to buy another striker and drop him for a couple of big matches in a row. Could do him the world of good and bring his desire back.
I think they tried that with Alvarez getting the nod a few times last season, though admittedly not in big games.
The guy's main weapons are his height, strength and power and pace, but he doesn't seem to know how to utilise them, as you imply. Let's be honest, he's never winning any playmaking awards so he has to maximise his athletic advantages before he gets older and they fade. He simply has to.
He even gets a lot of plaudits for his movement, but he seems to make the same predictable runs a lot of the time. He doesn't seem to mix it up much.
He will likely continue to score goals and his fanboys will keep calling the rest of us clueless for criticising him, but I remain unconvinced City are a better team with him than they were before. Yes they won the treble in his first season but it was only bad luck and fine margins stopping them doing that before. He scores a lot of goals but before he came they were sharing the goals around. They don't actually score more goals with him in the team than before, and while they still play great football, you see signs here and there of him getting in the way of their far more technical players.
I think you made a great point about he and Lukaku lacking confidence. They give an air of bravado on the park but I think the criticism in the media affects their game. The same is true (at a higher level than the pair of them) of Ronaldo.