Man City Star Ederson Reveals How He Is Changing The Goalkeeper Game

Ederson joined Man City in the summer from Benfica Not now.

The most expensive shot-stopper ever is transforming goalkeeping precisely because hecan play football.

Ederson is the mild-mannered revolutionary.He is sweeper-keeper and playmaker alike.

He spends so much of the game outside his penalty box that he doubles up as Manchester City’s 11th outfield player. Perhaps that is not surprising. He began as a defender.

His goalkeeping hero was good enough with the ball to score 131 goals.

He is making traditional goalkeepers seem like dinosaurs.

He shows why an old-school figure like Joe Hart is being consigned to City’s past.

“In the old times not many goalkeepers could play with their feet but modern football requires those skills because it’s changed,” Ederson explained.

So has he. “When I started playing football I started in the defensive line,” said the Brazilian.

“That was very important to me to learn some of the skills and I also played futsal, so that gave me skills with my feet as well helped me a lot later on.”

Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and a host of Brazilians honed their skills playing futsal, a South American version of football on a small, hard court with a heavier ball, as children.

Ederson had the technical ability but not the physical capabilities to play further upfield on a bigger pitch.

The players give me a lot of options for my passes.
Man City ace Ederson

“I had trouble and a struggled to run behind the strikers so I asked my manager if I could play in goal and it was love at first sight,” he added.

"I loved it. I enjoy it.”

He enjoys being involved. Pep Guardiola’s goalkeepers do not always have many saves to make. Their duties instead include passing.

“It’s even easier playing with Pep,” Ederson added. 

“I already have a lot of skills with my footwork and I train that but our team helps a lot because we like to keep the ball and start with the build-up. The players give me a lot of options for my passes.”

Guardiola makes different demands of a goalkeeper. The City boss exiled Hart because he did not fit his philosophy. The on-loan Hart will be ineligible to face City on Sunday.

Instead, he can watch a successor who is also his opposite. Ederson has an 84.9 percent pass completion rate. Many a midfielder would be proud of that. Hart’s success rate when he distributes the ball is a lowly 45.8 percent.

But change was botched when Guardiola replaced him last year. He brought in a goalkeeper who was good with his feet, but not his hands.

Ederson has now turned a problem position into a strength.

The dropped Claudio Bravo had the lowest save percentage of any regular Premier League keeper last season.

Ederson, a £34.7 million buy from Benfica. He has fared far better. He has already kept more clean sheets than the Chilean mustered.

Claudio Bravo has lost his place in the Man City first team.

“I’m really happy for the whole adaptation,” he said. It is just the start as he looks to emulate his role model.

And if City supporters think Ederson ventures far upfield, it is nothing compared to the most prolific goalkeeper in football history, a free-kick and penalty-taking Brazilian.

“I look up to a goalkeeper who has retired now, Rogerio Ceni, who played with his feet,” Ederson said.

“He was very skilful. And he made history. He played 25 years at Sao Paulo, more than 1200 games and that’s an inspiration for me. Hopefully I can build a history like that.”

But in the meantime, he is making conventional goalkeepers look like relics from history.