Manchester City 2017/2018 Player Preview – Ederson
After the disastrous Bravo experiment, Manchester City splashed out the cash for Ederson. How will he do in his first season in England?
Ederson is the newest Manchester City goalkeeper after coming over from Benfica for $44m. There is much hype surrounding this young Brazilian, and rightfully so. He is expected to be City’s and Brazil’s #1 for years to come. He will first have to win a competition with Claudio Bravo to be City’s first choice. I know many City fans laugh at the idea of Bravo being their first choice goalkeeper next year but I feel last year was an outlier. Bravo won trophies with both Chile and Barcelona and has proven himself on the biggest stages. For his season to go as badly as it did last year, something was wrong with him. The Chilean will surely bounce back this coming year. Guardiola will most likely go with whichever goalkeeper is playing best, like he did late last year with the Caballero and Bravo. I think this will last for a month or two but eventually, the Brazilian will become City’s #1.
Ederson is a very brave goalkeeper. While this will help him a lot, he will get exposed from time to time. He likes to rush off his line and is like a cat with his quickness. The Brazilian isn’t the tallest goalkeeper in the world but his reflexes make up for his lack of height. He isn’t the best at catching the ball but is very good at attacking the ball and punching it. What Ederson will bring most to City is his distribution. Much has been made of how Guardiola likes a goalkeeper who can kick and Ederson is one of the elite kicking goalkeepers. In Manchester City’s preseason friendly against Spurs he hit Aguero with a spectacular kick and created a chance from a goal kick. Ederson will have the ability to make teams back off with how far he can kick the ball which will make it easier for City to build from the back.
I expect Ederson to come into City’s starting eleven and stake his claim immediately. We saw in preseason how he likes to come off his line and attack players one on one. With how often the back line will be exposed, a goalkeeper like Ederson will help City. He has a gift to make himself bigger and puts pressure on attackers. There will be ups and downs with him because his style leaves him exposed. Once the players, Guardiola, and fans get used to the idea that his style of play, they will realize that the reward outweighs the risk. He will be City’s main goalkeeper in the league and Bravo will play the cup games and group stages of the Champions League. I expect come the later stages of the Champions league Ederson will be the starter. I see Ederson having an up and down start to the year.
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However, he will become one of the premier goalkeepers in the league by the year’s end.