IS PEP GOING ROUTE ONE?
Guardiola gets a kick out of new keeper Ederson’s ability to punt the ball into the opposition box (It doesn’t sound very Tiki-Taka!)
FOR all the hundreds of millions of pounds he has spent on attacking talent to score goals and full-backs to prevent them, Pep Guardiola’s biggest headache has been in finding a No.1.
He inherited Joe Hart when he arrived at Manchester City last summer but did not fancy him and made it clear from the start that England’s first-choice keeper was surplus to requirements.
He suffered ridicule when he brought in Claudio Bravo with the intention of him being a sweeper-keeper in the style of the man he left behind in Bayern Munich, Manuel Neuer.
As Bravo’s mistakes and strained attempts to adapt to the English game unravelled, Guardiola started looking again.
A world record fee for a keeper followed when he paid Benfica £35million for Ederson, who has been settling in nicely on the pre-season tour of America. And now Guardiola