As the weeks ticked down to January, and the anticipated upturn in fortunes at Manchester City never arrived, the scale of their business gradually became grander. Three to four signings were being mooted, with a budget of £200million.
City ended up spending slightly less than that and with Nico Gonzalez’s deadline day signing, attacked the key area of deficiency: central midfield. A new defender was generally accepted as a necessity – they ended up with two – and somebody to take the goalscoring pressure off Erling Haaland. Omar Marmoush more than proved he’s equipped to do that against Newcastle.
But there was another suggestion by those close to the club of what City may target. A potential new goalkeeper, if the right man was available. Which, given how hard Pep Guardiola fought to keep Ederson last summer, presented some surprise.
City’s goal to open Newcastle up for the first time on Saturday came from the No 1, somebody deemed imperative to Guardiola when jettisoning Claudio Bravo back in 2017. A perfect long ball, Marmoush galloping on. Amazingly, it was Ederson’s sixth league assist – the most ever recorded – and these are no flukes. He’s got himself three this season alone.
The Brazilian’s distribution was a key reason behind Guardiola’s heart-to-heart conversations while on tour in America ahead of the campaign, when the manager implored him not to take the money in Saudi Arabia and give the champions at least one more year. He has been such an integral member of this super team after joining from Benfica, where coaches affectionately nicknamed him ‘the bull’ and Guardiola was not ready to part ways.
Ederson, who had more than flirted with the idea of leaving, then felt paramount to what City wanted to achieve and more secure in his position after wavering slightly following a run-in that had seen No 2 Stefan Ortega lauded for a season-defining save at Tottenham Hotspur in the final week. Ederson has, at times, believed he hasn’t been afforded the credit he perhaps deserves for performances over a sustained period of time and there is some truth to that.
Ederson has been in and out of the Manchester City team this season – a fine performance against Newcastle could propel him into form
There was talk that City could look to sign a new goalkeeper in January despite Pep Guardiola fighting hard to keep the Brazilian
Stefan Ortega has stepped up on more than one occasion, pushing Ederson for the No 1 shirt
Guardiola obviously wouldn’t have wanted to introduce a new man with inferior footwork at this late stage of his Etihad tenure. But then, although playing through a muscle issue that stops him training properly, Ederson’s displays since have been indicative of City generally.
An unquestionable dip, evidenced by this clean sheet being only the team’s fifth in 25 games – and three of those were against Salford City, Ipswich Town and Leicester City. In no other entire season since Guardiola’s first have they conceded more league goals than the 35 already this term. Numbers that cannot be solely attributed to the goalkeeping department yet damning nonetheless.
‘It’s not about the keepers,’ Guardiola said on Friday. ‘Football is an ecosystem, a group. Why are the keepers not (in form)? Because the movements (elsewhere) are not proper.’
Then Guardiola did go on, adding: ‘The first goal against Arsenal, the second chance that (Kai) Havertz could score. We give them away. Just giving the goals away.’
The Havertz miss was from Ortega’s poor pass and the goalkeepers, both of whom might be subjectively considered at fault for 11 goals since the start of November, have struggled for consistency as the changes rain in front of them. With no stable back four, City cannot dream of reliable solidity.
It offers some form of reason behind their statistics this season. Compared with other first-choice stoppers, Ederson and Ortega come in at joint-17th alongside Andre Onana for save percentage through the division, at 63 per cent, above only their counterparts at Aston Villa, Brighton and Wolves.
Guardiola had stuck with Ederson through the beginning of their bad run – four defeats – before his role in the flabbergasting collapse against Feyenoord was the final straw. Ortega was thrown straight in for a defeat at Liverpool, Ederson eventually coming back in from the cold only to then go missing following his role in another late capitulation against Manchester United in December. Ederson missed four games over Christmas, just before the window opened, through injury.
The chopping and changing in defence has bred uncertainty, so too the lack of overall cohesion off the ball. Equally though, not possessing a truly steady goalkeeper has barely helped either and Guardiola will hope that this easier afternoon can act as a turning point for the man between the sticks and the start of something resembling normality.