Pep Guardiola came close to dropping Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson from his starting line-up last season
That’s according to The Athletic’s Manchester City correspondent Sam Lee.
Ederson has been City’s no.1 for six years now, ever since he arrived from Benfica in a £35m deal in 2017.
The Brazilian shot-stopper played a major part in City winning a historic treble last season, particularly in the Champions League.
He made several key stops against Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively and pulled off a superb save in the dying seconds of the final to preserve City’s lead over Inter Milan.
However, throughout the first seven months of the season, there were grumblings from sections of City’s support that Ederson’s performances had dropped both in terms of his shot-stopping and distribution.
Guardiola was close to making change
There were calls for substitute goalkeeper Stefan Ortega – who arrived on a free transfer from Arminia Bielefeld in 2022 – to take the no.1 spot.
Guardiola kept faith with Ederson, but it appears the City boss was closer to losing patience than many realised.
Speaking on the Let Me Talk Podcast, journalist Sam Lee explained that Guardiola almost turned to Ortega.
“I was told recently that Ederson was – not clinging on [exactly] – but in terms of Guardiola looking at him, he had a bit of a difficult spell,” Lee said.
“Guardiola really loves Ortega, and towards the end of last season he was like, ‘Ederson isn’t really making that much of a difference that Ortega couldn’t’.
“Ortega is very good on the ball, not as good as Ederson, but Ederson’s level had dropped a bit and what Guardiola had seen from Ortega was really high.
“So he was probably thinking there wasn’t much of a difference between these two guys, and maybe Ortega starts next season.
“But because Ederson finished the season so strongly and had such big moments, particularly in the Champions League games, he’s now safe as number one again.”
MCN view: City have what no one else does
Ederson repaid his manager’s faith in the end, so ultimately Guardiola made the right call.
Ortega is an excellent goalkeeper though, and is almost as good as Ederson with his feet.
What is clear is that City have the best goalkeeping dup in the Premier League, if not in Europe.
