Guardiola changing the game and goalkeeping again with ‘huge’ Donnarumma signing

It has been a bewildering decade or so for goalkeepers caught in a Pep-prompted identity crisis. But Guardiola may finally have brought some relief for keepers at all levels still confused as to who and what they really are.

It was already brewing around 2016, but the public’s perception of goalkeepers really became skewed when Guardiola rocked up at the Etihad and immediately binned Joe Hart. At that point, Hart was still England no.1 and widely regarded as one of Europe’s top goalkeepers.

A playmaker, though, he was not. So out he went for Claudio Bravo. The Chilean took the form of a hologram when his goal was being targeted, but he could spray passes for fun.

Guardiola found the necessary balance at Benfica. From there he bought Ederson in 2017, since when coaches across the land have sought to imitate the City boss by turning their keepers into quarter-backs.

It was entirely reasonable to demand more from goalkeepers in possession. But by that point, no No.1 had ever reached the top level without a solid grounding in the basics. Pep came a quarter of a century after the back-pass ban in 1992 which was genuinely seismic for goalkeepers in comparison to what the Guardiola movement demanded.

Still, keepers have endured a disorienting time in recent years. At all levels, they have so often been judged more on their feet than their hands. Which ignores the primary purpose of a goalkeeper entirely.

Maybe for many it was a matter of convenience. Judging a goalkeeper is very difficult – coaching one even more so – when you have no knowledge of the position. Why learn about the role when you can change it to something else closer to what you’re already familiar with?

Mercifully, the man who prompted a million p*ss-poor imitations may be redressing the balance himself. For goalkeepers particularly, Guardiola’s signing of Gianluigi Donnarumma could be as influential as the slinging of Joe Hart.

There should be some caution over reading too much into Donnarumma’s arrival since it was clearly an opportunistic move on City’s part. Even up to the first weekend of the season, Ederson was staying and he would compete with James Trafford. The chance to sign one of the world’s best goalkeepers was, evidently, too good to miss. Though not if you’re Manchester United.

But it does give an insight into Guardiola’s instinct and the way he sees the game going.

“He is so tall, he is so huge. From all the keepers, what we want is safe balls, give confidence to the team, have personality and a big presence.”

In goalkeeping terms, those are almost old-school traits. But as necessary now as they ever were with so many teams at the top level opting to take a more direct route, with long throw-ins and set-pieces slung under the bar back in vogue.

The Goalkeepers’ Union is yet to elect its first spokesperson – who would that be? – but reports from the ground suggest the feeling in the ranks is one of relief. Where Guardiola goes, others inevitably follow, so perhaps the obsession with goalkeepers being playmakers might diminish to a more reasonable balance.

That’s a positive thing for everyone, right? Who among us wants to watch a formulaic, overly-prescriptive game where goalkeepers and centre-backs spend much, much more time on the ball than the attacking players? Supporters don’t show up for rondos in their own box while the flair players stand high and wide on the off-chance a centre-back can beat a rabid press. Do they?

That absolutely isn’t to dismiss entirely the idea of building from the back. The principle is sound – especially if you are Guardiola with City’s players to put it into practise. But somewhere along the line, it became the only way to play.

That saturation point, thankfully, seems to have passed. Managers at all levels, from the Premier League down through the EFL to the park, if not ditching the theory completely are choosing their moments far more wisely. Many are again embracing the direct route. To the point that the cycle perhaps might again take us on Route One to POMO football.

We don’t want those methods across the board in the same way that building from the back should not be forced on absolutely everyone; football needs different styles, rather than being the homogeneous lump it threatened to become while everyone jumped aboard Pep’s bandwagon.

From a goalkeeper’s perspective, there remains some way to go before the world has properly healed. After all, when Donnarumma became available in the summer, there was a queue of just one, rather than the clamour there ought to have been to land one of the greats in his prime. His wages, of course, were a factor, but too many still overlooked his shot-stopping genius because he’s not passing like Pirlo.

Guardiola can see past that, so it should not be long before everyone else has their priorities straight too.