Manchester City The Fourmidables : Ederson

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - MAY 06: Ederson of Manchester City celebrates his sides first goal during the Premier League match between Manchester City and Leicester City at Etihad Stadium on May 06, 2019 in Manchester, United Kingdom. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - MAY 06: Ederson of Manchester City celebrates his sides first goal during the Premier League match between Manchester City and Leicester City at Etihad Stadium on May 06, 2019 in Manchester, United Kingdom. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

This has been a remarkable season for Pep Guardiola’s fantastic Manchester City team, but rather than selecting a player of the season Man City Square have decided to select a number of our players to mark their individual contributions during the year.

Ederson

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – APRIL 24: The tattoo on the back of Ederson of Manchester City during the Premier League match between Manchester United and Manchester City at Old Trafford on April 24, 2019 in Manchester, United Kingdom. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – APRIL 24: The tattoo on the back of Ederson of Manchester City during the Premier League match between Manchester United and Manchester City at Old Trafford on April 24, 2019 in Manchester, United Kingdom. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

The lizard king of keepers. Ice cool and unfazed. Disinterested and clearly bored. We have a frustrated midfielder in goal who wants the ball at every single opportunity – not to boot it into touch – but to create a goal scoring opportunity.

During the 2017/18 season we saw Ederson establish a style of play never before featured in the English Premier League. This was close ball control and skill in action as he sold attackers dummies, dribbled past them and sometimes won the occasional header in midfield. On top of this he set a clear pattern of being big and imposing in  goal, and capable of rushing out to put off the coolest attacker.

One of my favourite traits of Ederson is how he deals with mistakes. He is so ice cold he just forgets about them and moves on. Does not dwell for a single nano second.

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In our 2018/19 campaign we saw Ederson develop this style still further. Not content with the odd header or two we saw Ederson taking throw ins during matches. During the Carabao Cup Final he took a quick throw in – from inside the opposition half. This is another level entirely.

We also got to see the holy grail of goal keeping in action when Ederson achieved his first assist for Manchester City against Huddersfield back in August. He got his second against Schalke. I know he is capable of scoring and would love to see him achieve it – not from a set piece, but from open play.

In the Premier League season he was an ever present for City, conceding just 23 goals and keeping 20 clean sheets. In total he made 55 appearances and had 28 clean sheets in total. He also had 2 assists!

The even better news for Manchester City fans is he is just 25 years of age and is under contract with us until 30 June 2025.