Pep Guardiola may yet have signed a strong ball-playing goalkeeper this summer, despite recent concerns over the player in that particularly category.
Manchester City have significantly overhauled their goalkeeping roster in recent months, with Scott Carson released at the end of his contract and Ederson completing a £12.1 million transfer to Fenerbahce this week.
Hugo Viana has orchestrated a major revamp of Guardiola’s first-team squad upon his appointment as Manchester City’s sporting director, with Kevin De Bruyne, Kyle Walker, James McAtee and Ilkay Gundogan also leaving the club in the window.
Meanwhile, City have welcomed a series of new signings to the Etihad Stadium as Guardiola aims to build a new-look team that can challenge for major trophies after his side recorded their lowest points tally (71) in the Premier League during the Spaniard’s tenure last term.
Rayan Ait-Nouri, Tijjani Reijnders, Marcus Bettinelli, Rayan Cherki, Sverre Nypan, James Trafford and Gianluigi Donnarumma have all joined Manchester City this summer, with Jack Grealish (Everton), Claudio Echeverri (Bayer Leverkusen), Nypan (Middlesbrough), Manuel Akanji (Inter Milan) and Vitor Reis (Girona) leaving on loan.
City have four goalkeepers in their first-team squad, with all four named in the club’s UEFA Champions League 23-man List-A squad, raising questions over how Guardiola’s pecking order for his goalkeepers will take shape as the season progresses.
Trafford kept a clean sheet on his Premier League debut for Manchester City in a 4-0 win away at Wolves and impressed in a 2-1 defeat away at Brighton on Sunday – a week on from the 22-year-old Englishman committing an error that directly led to Tottenham scoring their second at the Etihad Stadium.
However, the stunning deadline day capture of Donnarumma puts Trafford’s hopes of becoming number one in serious doubt, with the 26-year-old Italy international boasting a much stronger CV than his younger counterpart, who has just two years of senior football at Burnley behind him.
Interestingly, the departure of Ederson and City’s subsequent recruitment of Donnarumma as the Brazilian’s replacement has raised eyebrows across the football industry, with many pointing out that Donnarumma’s ineptness with the ball at his feet will prove to be a major hurdle in Manchester City being able to build from the back with the Italian in net.
According to the information of Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport, as translated and relayed by Sport Witness, Donnarumma played a ‘superb’ 30-yard pass for Italy full-back Andrea Cambiaso in training with his national teammates on Monday.
The newspaper says Manchester City’s newest recruit ‘looked like (Andrea) Pirlo’ at that point, and impressed with his ability on the ball during the training session, amid doubts over his footwork after joining Guardiola’s side.
Whoever Manchester City would have identified and signed as a replacement for Ederson – who is considered the best goalkeeper in the world with the ball at his feet – would have been a downgrade to the 31-year-old, as it remains to be seen how City’s gamble on Donnarumma works out should Guardiola stick to his guns and style of play.