Edwin Van der Sar and David De Gea show why City and Liverpool might be wise to back keepers

As revolutionary as Pep Guardiola’s use of Claudio Bravo is supposed to be, there is nothing revelatory about the situation in which the Chilean now finds himself.

He is far from the first goalkeeper to suffer bad form after a high-profile change of the number-one position. He is far from the only one suffering right now, given how Loris Karius has struggled at Liverpool. They both follow the examples set by Edwin van der Sar at Juventus, Jens Lehmann at Milan, David De Gea at Manchester United and Petr Cech at the start of his Arsenal career.

There is an obvious explanation for this. It’s already an isolated position, with all concentration suddenly on it, and any slip magnified - both in terms of attention and consequence. It’s therefore little wonder that even some of the finest goalkeepers have initially struggled, especially when moving to a new country.

Van der Sar might have developed a completely justified reputation for how composed he generally was, but he was anything but on arriving in Italy in 1999. His first bit of trouble also puts a little spin on the current Bravo controversy. Because, on his debut for Juventus, Van der Sar attempted to do what he had always done for Ajax: pass the ball out to his centre-half.

He immediately found this was something his centre-halves were never told was going to happen – despite it coming up in negotiations – as Paolo Montero instantly hammered the ball out of play, before turning around to hammer his new goalkeeper. Criticism soon turned to caricature, as Van der Sar’s form crumbled, and he was nicknamed ‘Van der Gol’ by the Italian press. Before the season had ended, the Dutch international was telling his agent he barely had enough confidence to catch the ball.

Just over a decade later, when a much more assured Van der Sar was finally replaced at Manchester United, one of the most striking images of De Gea’s first few weeks at the club was Phil Jones having to tell the Spaniard to come out for crosses with his arms out during a match against West Brom.

It probably got worse before it got better. Even as late as January 2013, Alex Ferguson was concerned about De Gea’s ongoing struggles to adapt to the Premier League, and considered a move for Asmir Begovic.

That all changed, of course. But, if the explanation for much of this is obvious, it also leads to an obvious question – albeit one that is difficult to answer.

Will it change for Bravo or Karius? Is there anything in their performances so far that Karius can steady himself in the long run, or whether Bravo can recreate his performance level from Barcelona and Chile?

For every De Gea, after all, there’s also a Massimo Taibi. And that makes it all the more difficult to tell.

Karius has so far seemed to make many unforced errors, like for Dmitri Payet’s goal against Liverpool, while Bravo can barely keep a shot out.

Can they escape this any time quickly, or are their inherent issues? Is Karius good enough? What can we say about his basic goalkeeping after the first few games? Is Bravo commanding enough? What does it say that Jamie Vardy was so open about how Leicester City so pointedly targeted his main strength: his footwork?

Dave Henderson, who has been a goalkeeper scout for Premier League clubs and now works with the Irish Professional Keepers Academy, believes time itself may be the issue.

“They are bespoke keepers recruited for a certain way of playing and they were obviously good at it at their previous clubs but, in England, the weather conditions, the opposition tactics all change week to week and it takes time,” Henderson says. “It took De Gea time.

“It all depends on attitude and confidence. That’s why Klopp is defending Karius so much. Bravo is getting older and split seconds make a huge difference in where he ends up when he decides to leave his area. If he gets it wrong, he looks ridiculous. Most goalkeepers lately can play until they are 40 but Bravo plays like an outfield player and time will catch up with him quicker.

“Karius stands with his hands behind his back, and that wouldn’t have helped with the Bournemouth goal. There’s wasn’t much talk of the slow reaction of the defenders to the ball when it came off him and maybe [Jamie] Carragher or [Gary] Neville could be picking up on a lack of basic good old-school defending, that should be their department.”

As Henderson says, though, the consequences of a keeper slip are so disproportionately big that it can make them look “ridiculous”. That in turn brings even more focus, that can in turn make a goalkeeper’s already delicate confidence all the more fragile.

One of few potential solutions, it seems, is to keep the faith. The problem is that could see a side lose a lot of points in the meantime. It’s a cycle that’s difficult to break from, no matter how revolutionary your idea.