The smiling maverick with his own passing wand - Ederson has the world at his feet
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Published 09/08/2019 at 14:58 GMT
The Manchester City goalkeeper might well be the best in the world - and if he isn't then he is very close, writes Pete Sharland.
Ederson of Manchester City celebrates with the Premier League trophy during the Manchester City Teams Celebration Parade on May 20, 2019 in Manchester, England.
Image credit: Getty Images
Every goalkeeper thinks they can play outfield.
It doesn’t matter what age they are or at what level they play at, there is something within every goalkeeper that makes them believe they could do what the outfielders are doing.
At the top levels of professional football, goalkeepers performing a role that an outfielder normally would do holds a special place in the cult hall of fame.
The likes of Hans-Jorg Butt, Jose Chilavert and Rogerio Ceni will forever be remembered for their goalscoring exploits, and it’s really hard to explain why.
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Goalkeeper Rogerio Ceni (Reuters)
Image credit: Reuters
Why do we make such a big deal about goalkeepers scoring? Of course it’s partly the sheer novelty, scoring is the exact opposite of their job, but we have constantly seen defenders taking free-kicks and penalties, why not keepers?
Perhaps it really is just the simple fact that it is not something we see that often, it is much the same way the world reacted to Manuel Neuer when he helped popularise the idea of a sweeper-keeper.
Nowadays every keeper is expected to play out from the back with his feet, and few in the world do it to a level as Manchester City’s Ederson Moraes.
The 25-year-old is about to enter his third year in the Premier League and comes into it off a season where he helped the team win a domestic treble.
The next step for City is the Champions League, make no bones about it, but on a personal level this could be the season that Ederson establishes himself as the very best in the world.
With the injuries suffered by Neuer, and the worrying loss of form for David De Gea last season, Ederson has found himself in competition with compatriot Alisson Becker and La Liga duo Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Jan Oblak.
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Manchester City's Ederson in action during training at Manchester City Football Academy on August 07, 2019 in Manchester, England.
Image credit: Getty Images
At some stage when the conservation is dominated by such elite talent it can become fairly arbitrary how you split players, and more often than not it is a matter of personal preference.
Some may point to the remarkable impact Alisson had on Liverpool, some to Ter Stegen’s lightening reflexes and others to the sheer ruthless miserliness of Oblak.
Ederson offers an interesting answer to that particular question.
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Ederson and Bernardo Silva of Manchester City with FA trophy during the FA Cup Final match between Manchester City and Watford at Wembley Stadium on May 18, 2019 in London, England. (
Image credit: Getty Images
As a keeper he ticks pretty much every box. He’s strong in the air, fearless in one-on-ones and has superb reactions.
But what he can offer with his feet is an entirely different matter entirely.
As good as someone like Ter Stegen, and even Alisson, is with the ball at their feet Ederson seems to take it to a totally different level.
Little dinks out to his full-backs, tight passes to his centre-backs or central midfielders, long raking diagonals out to wingers or strikers, ball from the floor, side-kick, throwing, he can do everything.
It’s genuinely outrageous to watch Ederson playing those little passes out to his defence, he never seems rattled and nearly always seems to find his man.
His performances over the past couple of years have vindicated Pep Guardiola’s decision to dispense with Joe Hart and look for a keeper who is comfortable with the ball at his feet. The theory was spot on, it was just initially poorly executed with the signing of Claudio Bravo.
A couple of weeks ago Ederson and team-mate Gabriel Jesus took part in a charity game in the former’s home town alongside some musicians and fellow professionals Eder Militao and David Neres. Ederson wore the No.10 shirt and played in midfield, scoring twice, of course it’s not exactly the most demanding of opposition but it’s still fascinating to watch the sheer level of technical ability.
In the second game of last season Ederson produced a gorgeous assist, launching a perfect 60-yard pass that set Sergio Ageruo away for the opening goal in City’s 6-1 win over Huddersfield Town.
That is just one the ways Ederson acts as a weapon for his team, getting counter-attacks started and even wasting time, on more than one occasion last year a well-directed kick from the Brazilian set a forward away to find the corner flag.
Never before has so much been demanded of goalkeeper, the multi-facetted nature of their game in the modern era puts so much demand on them from a mental standpoint. No position has to deal with the level of pressure of goalkeepers, if they make a mistake then nine times out of ten it will lead to a goal.
But none of this seems to faze Ederson, if anything like most of his contemporaries he seems to relish it, he thrives in it. That mentality puts him in the perfect position to be able to take his game up that final level to put himself at the top of the tree.
Maybe he’s not the most important player at City, who knows what might have happened had Kevin de Bruyne been fit for the entire season last year, but he’s certainly in the top three or four.
Ederson is a pivotal piece in Guardiola’s team, the last line of defence and the first method of attack, the tattooed maverick who can seemingly do everything.
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