Reprinted from: Premier League He may be the best goalkeeper in the world at present, but many people still question his inability to adapt to Manchester City and succeed Ederson. What are the differences in the technical characteristics of these tw...
Reprinted from: Premier League
He may be the best goalkeeper in the world at present, but many people still question his inability to adapt to Manchester City and succeed Ederson. What are the differences in the technical characteristics of these two top goalkeepers? What changes will the new generation of Blue Moon Gate God bring to the team?
Since Guardiola came to coach in the Premier League, the way goalkeepers play has changed a lot. In the 2015/16 season, the season before Guardiola coached Manchester City, 74.2% of the goal goals were directly driven to the opponent's half. By the 2024/25 season, this proportion dropped to 40.4%.
Although the new goal ball regulations implemented before the 2019/20 season (no longer mandatory requirement for goal balls to be passed outside the penalty area) have also had a considerable impact on this change, it can be seen from the data that the trend has formed before this. This is also proven by the improvement in the success rate of goalkeepers in the Premier League.
And another important influencing factor may be Ederson, who joined in June 2017. The arrival of the most skilled goalkeeper in the Premier League and even world football has allowed Guardiola to reach new heights in strict requirements on goalkeeper position.
In sports wars, Manchester City can "pull out" their opponents in a better way. Ederson is calm in possession of the ball and skilled in his feet, and can calmly deal with the high-pressure pressing of opponents. In this way, Manchester City can almost always have one more player than their opponents.
But more importantly, Ederson was able to pass the ball directly to the frontcourt with amazing accuracy. These passes are not the kind of "resolving ball" that can be swung the ball out with one kick and let the teammates chase and fight. They are often fast and accurate passes in a low arc, pointing directly to the target teammates who are receiving the ball.
Although he only played in the Premier League for eight seasons, Ederson has more nine assists than any other goalkeeper in Premier League history.
Some people can fully understand and agree with Manchester City's signing of Donala Malay to replace Ederson. After all, this is likely to be the best goalkeeper on the earth at present, and he is only 26 years old. Such a good opportunity is rare.
But after careful consideration, Guardiola once quickly gave up Joe Hart because of Bravo's excellent passing ability, but now let Ederson go and replace him with a goalkeeper who has far less passing and dispatching ability.
Although Joe Hart strongly supported Donnarumma in a recent interview: "His footwork is very good!" But in terms of passing ability alone, his level is far inferior to Ederson, and he is not even as good as Manchester City's second goalkeeper Trafford.
Although Donnarumma's pass success rate ranked second (85.4%) among all goalkeepers who played for more than 100 minutes in the Ligue 1 last season, and the proportion of long passes was only 25.6%, this data still needs further consideration because Paris Saint-Germain always dominates the game.
The data in the face of stronger opponents may reflect the problem more accurately, and at a higher pace of the game, Donaruma was either due to tactical instructions or forced to make more frequent long pass choices under pressure. This also led to a decrease in his pass success rate.
In the 2024/25 Champions League, Donnarumma's pass success rate dropped to 73.9%, while his long pass ratio increased to 40.2%, and he ranked the lowest in all Champions League goalkeepers last season (only 45.6%). The change in goalkeeper position may mean that Guardiola has to adjust the team's game style. However, as Guardiola admits, the Premier League is changing, with increasing emphasis on offense and defensive transformation and fast and direct offense.
"Today, modern football is the way Bournemouth, Newcastle United, Brighton and Liverpool play," Guardiola said in an interview earlier this year.
The 2025/26 season has just ended three rounds, but the proportion of goal balls directly into the opponent's half in the Premier League has increased for the first time in a decade, and the growth rate is very significant.
In modern football, offense and defense conversion is becoming more and more effective, and long passes allow frontcourt players to try to compete for ball rights, thus having the opportunity to regain the ball rights at a high position.
Although signing Donnarumma does not mean that Guardiola's Manchester City will completely get rid of the pass control attributes. However, all Premier League teams have seen Tottenham's playing style and know that Donnarumma's footwork is far less than Ederson's.
Faced with pressure from other teams, Guardiola has to make some changes to deal with it, so we may see them making more long passes than in previous years, allowing Manchester City's gameplay to further move towards the direction of the modern football trend.
