Weaver: Bravo can become a City hero
CLAUDIO Bravo’s derby baptism of fire got him off to the worst possible start in his City career.
And now he is preparing for a re-match with United, with words of encouragement from a Blues goalkeeping legend – Nicky Weaver.
The man who will forever live in City history for his penalty shoot-out heroics in the 1999 play-off final victory thinks that Bravo was up against it from the start.
The Blues fans were not happy about the departure of Joe Hart, who is still much-loved by the support – and when Bravo made that rick to hand Zlatan Ibrahimovic a goal in City’s 2-1 Old Trafford derby win, he was already in trouble.
“He is not a poor goalkeeper, he’s just had a poor start to life in Manchester,” said Weaver, now an academy goalkeeping coach at Sheffield Wednesday. “I don’t want to say it was an unpopular signing, but because of how popular Joe was he was up against it right away. Joe was a hero for the fans, so replacing that will always be difficult.
“He got off to a bad start on his debut in the derby when he made a little error for the goal.”
Pep Guardiola afterwards defended Bravo, and implied that John Stones, who obstructed his rush for the ball, was to blame. But Weaver said: “He came a long way out of his goal, and you could see he shouted and John Stones didn’t get out of his way.
“That shows a lack of understanding between the two, perhaps because of different languages, but once you leave your goal that far you have to get the ball. It wasn’t all his fault but he got the brunt of it.”
Bravo was brought in by Guardiola as a neat fit for his tactic of playing out from the back, but Weaver feels a keeper needs to show more than that.
He said: “He is fantastic with his feet – I bet he could play as a sitting midfield player. He threads the ball through and breaks the opposition lines with his passing. He is as good as you will see at that, but a goalkeeper has to keep the ball out of the net. He has had a lot of criticism because a lot of things have gone in that maybe shouldn’t have.
“He is not chucking them in – they are not going through his legs, but a little bit of pace on the ball seems to have caused him problems.
“But he has 100 caps for Chile, has played at World Cups and for Barcelona, so he understands the pressure and will be used to it.
“People nit-pick at every little thing, so it might have done him good to be brought out of the firing line.
“Everything is analysed in super slo-mo and you have people saying ‘He didn’t move his feet quick enough’ or ‘It went through him.’
“Until you have been in goal and realise how ferocious the shots are, or how much the ball moves, it is very difficult. “But I am sure he will bounce back.” Nicky Weaver starred in Betsafe’s five-a-side derby clash between City and United legends. See it by logging on to betsafe.com