Man City Square has been looking at the development of Manchester City in the last 10 years and selects the best players we have had during this time to assemble a dream starting XI. We are starting this series of articles with the goalkeepers.
During the last 10 years Manchester City have had a surprising number of goalkeepers at the Club. This has been a combination of different types of players – changes in the first team keeper as a result of changing managers and tactical approaches and rotation of back up keepers. Some managers have bolstered the ranks of the squad by promoting youth team keepers. others have preferred an experienced keeper.
Immediately following the takeover of City by Sheikh Mansour on 1 September 2008 our goalkeeper was Joe Hart who had established himself in the role after a period away on loan. Yet within 6 months an experienced goalkeeper – Shay Given – had been added to the ranks by manager Mark Hughes and by the start of the following season Hart found himself away on loan again. During this period back up duties were provided by Kasper Schmeichel. After impressing on loan at Birmingham City Joe Hart returned to the club and claimed the goalkeeper first team shirt.
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By this time Shay Given had moved on and back up keeper duties were performed by Costel Pantilimon. This goalkeeping pairing remained in place until Summer 2014 when Pantilimon moved to Sunderland in search of regular game time and City brought in veteran keeper Willy Caballero. Hart continued as the first choice keeper supported by Caballero who had memorable moments such as his penalty saving antics in the 2016 League Cup Final.
The 2016/17 season saw the arrival of Pep Guardiola as Manager and he immediately made the decision to change goalkeeper believing Joe Hart was not capable of playing the way in which he desired. The arrival of Claudio Bravo as first choice keeper and the sending out of Joe Hart again on loan left many City fans unhappy, especially given that Bravo struggled to fully adjust to the demands placed upon him.
The title winning team of 2017/18 was built around the acquisition of Ederson as keeper with Bravo relegated to a supporting role. Indeed Ederson made such an impact he enabled the Guardiola vision of building from the back and retaining possession to flourish to such an extent that we achieved a record points haul in the league and a domestic trophy.
In choosing the best keeper in the last 10 years it is clear there are just two outstanding candidates – Hart and Ederson. Whilst Hart has won more titles in England than Ederson and has played more games, Ederson has probably changed how goalkeeping works in this country. This renders the choice much more difficult than it had first appeared to me.
Hart played well in our side, contributing to our change in psychology from everyone’s favourite non threatening second team to being genuine competitors. He dragged us through some results and made some fantastic saves. His performance against Messi is legendary.
But overall I find it difficult to be dissuaded from Ederson. The calmness of his decision making, his ball control and passing. The length and accuracy of his kicking – all serve to remind us of how extraordinary Ederson is. But the thing which sways me most is that on every school playground at the moment I see young kids wanting to play in goal and they are all pretending to be Ederson.
Man City Square Best Goalkeeper: Ederson