Gianluigi Donnarumma’s arrival signals a shift in style for Man City under Pep Guardiola

It would be understandable if Pep Guardiola ’s thoughts turn ever more to Istanbul. The city that crosses continents is where the Catalan won what may prove to be his last European Cup . The trophy Manchester City finally claimed in 2023 was lifted by Ilkay Gundogan, now of Galatasaray. When he reflected on the final against Internazionale, Guardiola always tended to afford most credit to Ederson, now of Fenerbahce , for his string of late saves. Perhaps that was the ultimate irony of the definitive footballing goalkeeper: now his City career is over, the greatest moments required the traditional skills of a goalkeeper.

But Ederson was the revolutionary. His successor, Gianluigi Donnarumma , is only 26 but has long looked the youngest member of the ancient regime, a goalkeeper out of time; out, in particular, of Guardiola’s time. If it is possible to be simultaneously the best goalkeeper in the world and the least Guardiola goalkeeper in the world, Donnarumma is. But perhaps Guardiola, and his style of football, made a prodigy look an anachronism when he was barely out of his teens.

It explains the mixed reaction to a signing that would otherwise have appeared a coup. Much as City have spent in the last 17 years, they have rarely recruited players who have already won the Champions League; nor those who have been anointed as the game’s finest in their position. Yet if Ederson was a statement signing, a signal of the direction a team was taking, what is Donnarumma? A glimpse into life after Guardiola, perhaps; an indication City will be less distinct, less shaped by footballing ideology? An example of footballing opportunism, a recognition that the outstanding goalkeeper in last season’s Champions League was available at an affordable price at a point when, for the second successive summer, Ederson had acquired a wanderlust? An admission that, more than before, City need a goalkeeper who blocks shots?

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Ederson has completed a move to Turkey (PA Wire)

There is a temptation to deem Donnarumma more of a Hugo Viana signing than a Guardiola buy; certainly, when City had already bought a goalkeeper, James Trafford, this summer, it could look a case of confused thinking at the start of a new director of football’s tenure. Guardiola’s long-time sidekick Txiki Begiristain may have been more in tune with his former teammate’s thinking.

But Guardiola can confound. He has acquired players who appear to stray far from his ideal in their role: Jack Grealish, despite his role in the Treble that Ederson secured, cannot be classed as a success; Erling Haaland certainly can. Guardiola has been adaptable enough to reconfigure his team to suit a giant No 9. If the stereotypical Guardiola side was packed with diminutive passers, perhaps the class of 2025-26 will be able to intimidate opponents in the tunnel with the sheer size of Haaland, Donnarumma and other strapping six-footers.

If the classic Guardiola teams can be a seductively slick collective, maybe his newest group will look to individual inspiration to secure results. In Haaland and Donnarumma, he could have match-winners at either end of the pitch, maybe compensating for the deficiencies in between.

They have given up more good chances in the last 13 months. City’s xG against leapt to 47.7 in the Premier League last season, only the seventh best; while Ederson, in what was nonetheless a distinctly mixed campaign, ended up with a post-shot xG of +5.0 (or, in layman’s terms, saved five goals more than he should), there is a logic to bringing in a brilliant shot-stopper. In Ligue Un in 2023-24, Donnarumma registered a post-shot xG of 10.4. Perhaps more pertinently, as Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League run demonstrated, he has the invaluable capacity to make big saves at big moments. An unquantifiable measure can nonetheless be reassuring.

And Ederson shared the traditional fault of Guardiola goalkeepers, of conceding to the first shot on target; Claudio Bravo was a particular offender but not the only one. If the shift in thinking in the Treble campaign represented a newfound fondness from Guardiola for centre-backs who could defend one-on-one, rather than seeing midfielders as makeshift full-backs exposed on the counter-attack, maybe it is time for a goalkeeper who can win his individual battles.

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Donnarumma left PSG after the European winners signed Lucas Chevalier (Getty)

But it requires a shift in style. While Donnarumma is not as bad with the ball at his feet as is sometimes suggested, it is nevertheless true that Luis Enrique, a former colleague and then a successor of Guardiola’s at Barcelona, brought in a footballing goalkeeper, in Lucas Chevalier, at PSG to replace him.

Meanwhile, City have already conceded one costly goal this season from a failed attempt to pass out from the back, Trafford culpable when Joao Palhinha doubled Tottenham’s lead . It illustrated the risks for the goalkeepers who do not double up as the 11th outfielder. It also could make Trafford particularly luckless; returning to City with the confidence to compete with Ederson, in the last year of his contract, he now seems upstaged by Donnarumma, who is equipped with a five-year deal.

The rules of the competition have changed, along with the job description. It seems a safe assumption that Donnarumma won’t threaten Ederson’s record of four Premier League assists in a season. But he isn’t an upgrade or a downgrade as much as a completely different marking system.

That he could be plunged into a debut in a Manchester derby, perhaps against counterpart Senne Lammens , another September addition, but one who lacks his pedigree, could be daunting, though perhaps not to a man whose saves won Euro 2020 and took PSG to the Champions League final. But the circumstances mean that Donnarumma could be a sign of an incipient identity crisis at City or the face of a new reality, where a goalkeeper’s job is simply to make saves.