Manchester City Premier League Preview: Goal Keepers

Welcome to the official Premier League preview!

The 2020/2021 season kicks off this weekend and while Manchester City don’t debut until 21 September, this week we will preview all four position groups. GK, defenders, midfielders and forwards. We will look at three areas, beginning with strengths and weaknesses. Then, move in to positional battles, to hopefully gain a holistic view at the squad as they enter Pep Guardiola’s fifth season in charge.

The Players

Ederson Moraes

Zach Steffen

Scott Carson

Aro Muric

Strengths

All the goalkeepers are sound and can perform the duties with their legs as ‘sweeper-keepers’. Ederson is ol’ reliable, strong with his feet and a solid shot stopper. He is a trustful player to have in net most times.

What’s interesting this season, is Ederson finally will have legitimate competition for the number 1. With Claudio Bravo’s departure, Steffen steps right in a sa reliable shot stopper and proved he can handle a heavy workload as he did with Fortuna Dusseldorf in Germany last season. Zack, is a known quantity and can push Ederson to be a better keeper.

In Carson, we get a veteran, a homegrown Englishman for roster purposes and a cult hero in football twitter circles.

Muric, might be the odd man out and it does seem he would be loaned out again this season.

Weaknesses

Blunders. Both our goalkeeper’s who will get playing time this season will be subjected to criticism if previous errors for both show up again. From mishandling crosses, to not collecting a shot securely enough, add Ederson’s at times reckless attempts to go out of box and wreck a player as he did with Eric Garcia and there could be some trouble. What is assuring is that while both have had blunders last season, another year of experience and maturity should help ease those fears.

Positional battles

It’s Ederson’s job to lose. While Steffen was brought in as competition he will be enacted as City’s cup keeper for the start. Ederson has proven his worth and barring injury he should maintain his spot. Of course, if those blunders as mentioned above, show their face again we could be looking at a new starter by year’s end. That’s of course providing that Steffen is solid in cup competitions.

Thoughts on Manchester City’s GK crop?