Pep Guardiola is betraying his principles by signing Gianluigi Donnarumma - but Man City needed to go back to basics after Ederson's decline

Guardiola shook up football by making Barca play in a way that hadn't been seen in a quarter of a century, when he was a midfielder in Johan Cruyff's 'Dream Team'. He continued with the same blueprint at Bayern and with City, soon changing the way football was seen in both Germany and England. But contrary to popular opinion, Guardiola has constantly evolved his style of play. 

He has gone from playing high-flying full-backs like Dani Alves and Joao Cancelo to fielding a back four entirely comprised of centre-backs at City. He has lurched from playing without a natural centre-forward to later building his team around Erling Haaland, the most clinical striker in the world but whose build-up play is limited. He has even modified how he uses his goalkeepers, as Ederson has mixed his short passes with long launched balls deep into the opposition half, leading to him providing eight assists during his City career, including four last season. 

Guardiola explained his methods to ESPN Brasillast year: ”It's because otherwise I get bored. Always doing the same thing for eight years would be very boring. Secondly, when you do something and it goes well, they [opponents] watch you and create an antidote. If you go too inside, they close in. If we open up the field too much, they'll open it up more. Anything we do and they respond to us, we have to respond again. The third reason is the players we have. What specific qualities they have and when they adapt best to the way you want to play."

Turning to Donnarumma, though, feels like an evolution too far for Guardiola given his usual demands on goalkeepers. Just two weeks ago, the coach told the Men in Blazers podcast: "It's difficult for me to find one 'keeper that is not brave with their feet. It is so difficult to find. Now I'm not saying be like Ederson and have the ability to put the ball 60 yards in the pockets. He has an incredible ability to do that, and Stefan Ortega has this ability as well. But all of them have to be a minimum to play."

Donnarumma, though, is not a goalkeeper who would usually be described as being brave with his feet or who fits the profile Guardiola tends to look for. Indeed, Paris Saint-Germain forced him out this summer at the behest of coach Luis Enrique, even after Donnarumma had helped them win a clean sweep of trophies, including their first ever Champions League, due to the difficulties he faced with the all at his feet. 

The Italy No.1 was instrumental in taking PSG to the final in Munich, saving two penalties in the shootout win over Liverpool in the last 16, averting a late comeback from Aston Villa in the quarter-finals before making eight saves in the semi-final tie with Arsenal, after which team-mate Vitinha described Donnarumma as the 'MVP'. 

And yet the club decided to sign young upstart Lucas Chevalier and excluded Donnarumma from training as well as leaving him out of the squad for the UEFA Super Cup in a bid to force his departure. His stalling on a contract over a salary dispute may have played a part in that call, but Luis Enrique owned the decision, saying he was looking for "a goalkeeping profile that is different". 

Chevalier is certainly bolder with the ball than Donnarumma. Last season for Lille, he completed far more long passes (158-62) and 'launches' (61-16), which are defined by Opta as 'high balls into space or an area for players to chase or challenge for the ball', than the man he has replaced at Parc des Princes. Chevalier also out-performed Donnarumma in more traditional goalkeeping metrics, as he kept seven more clean sheets than the Italian in Ligue 1 last season (11-4) and boasted a better save percentage (71.65-66.22) despite Lille finishing fifth while PSG romped to the title.

The fact that Luis Enrique wanted to sell Donnarumma while Guardiola wanted to buy him is telling. Both coaches played and managed Barcelona, and when Luis Enrique was in charge of the Catalans he refused to sell Marc-Andre ter Stegen to City, instead letting Bravo move to the Etihad Stadium so the ball-playing German could become his No.1. 

When he was in the Camp Nou dugout, Luis Enrique was sometimes accused of veering from the 'tiqui taca' style Guardiola perfected as boss, but when his PSG side met a Barca team coached by Xavi in 2024, he cheekily declared that his team played far more like the Barca of old than the current team. And by choosing to move on from Donnarumma due to his limitations with the ball, it seems Luis Enrique is even a stricter apostle of Barca style than the man who originally brought it back into fashion.

That is not to say that Donnarumma is particularly bad with his feet when compared to his peers. His passing accuracy was 85.4 percent in Ligue 1 last season, lower than Ederson's 86.3% but higher than City's other two goalkeepers, Ortega (79.4%) and James Trafford (70%). He also ranked third among the four when it came to his save percentage, which was 66.2%, as Trafford led the way with an insane 84.5%, albeit in the Championship. 

Donnarumma's reluctance to play out from the back might well stem from one of his worst-ever mistakes, when he was mugged by Karim Benzema inside his own six-yard box as Real Madrid sensationally came from two goals down on aggregate to knock PSG out of the Champions League in 2022. Donnarumma also infamously gave away a goal in Ligue 1 by passing straight to Monaco's Takumi Minamino, while he made two tremendous errors with his feet during his time at AC Milan, as he  allowed a Gabriel Paletta back-pass straight into his net while also gifting a goal to Sampdoria when dribbling inside his penalty area.

Those errors contributed to Donnarumma taking a more conservative approach, playing closer to his goal-line than many other top keepers. But it also led to him being renowned as one of the top shot-stoppers in the business, although his 6'5 frame clearly helps.

"He's massive, but his positional awareness in his box is excellent," former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson told the BBC. "That's down to the depth perception he has when he is reading a through-ball and his understanding of where his line is. A lot of goalkeepers get sucked into rushing off their line to try to close down the angle and to close down the shot, and they think they are in a better position further away from the goal. It is something I did myself sometimes, and you find the shot is past you before you are ready. What Donnarumma does instead, very cleverly, is stay closer to his line, maybe two or three yards away. Because of his size he knows he can cover most of his goal from there anyway."

Luis Enrique obliged Donnarumma to take a more aggressive approach and it led to him making more mistakes. Indeed, the coach took the blame when the goalkeeper was sent off against Le Havre two seasons ago after coming out of his area to try and clear the ball, only to instead kick opponent Josue Casimir in the face. 

Donnarumma's finest work came at Euro 2020 when playing in an Italy side coached by Roberto Mancini and with veteran centre-backs Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci in front of him. In other words, this was not a team who cared about courageous passing out from the back. Donnarumma came into his own in the penalty shootouts against Spain in the semi-finals and England in the final, going on to become the first and only goalkeeper to be named Player of the Tournament at a European Championship. He has thus far only lost one of the seven shootouts he has played in.

The Italian is set to swoop more prizes this year on the back of PSG's treble win, with the Ballon d'Or's Yashin Trophy and FIFA's The Best goalkeeper awards surely his for the taking. He was also named the top goalkeeper in the world earlier this year by the CIES Football Observatory Index, before he had won any of those three team trophies.

So despite Luis Enrique's own preferences and a few glaring errors, it is clear that City are signing a world-renowned keeper who has performed at the highest level and coped with the scrutiny of keeping goal for Milan, PSG and Italy. He has plenty more to give at the age of 26, but also has a decade of experience under his belt having made his debut for the Rossoneri when he was only 16.

Donnarumma will not give City the attacking outlet that Ederson afforded them, but within the last couple of seasons the Brazilian's sloppy mistakes were beginning to erode the benefits of his distribution skills. Indeed, Ederson was one of the biggest culprits in City's disastrous showing in last season's Champions League, and their response has been to sign the standout performer in Europe's top competition from 2024-25.

There are some parallels with the signing of Haaland, with Guardiola changing his usual approach when presented with an opportunity to get the best in the business. To some it might feel like a betrayal of the coach's usual principles, but an alternative viewing is that Ederson was one of a kind and with few outstanding candidates on the market, City have gone back to basics by getting one of the best shot-stoppers around.

If Donnarumma again lifts the Champions League trophy in Budapest at the end of May, no one will be talking about principles.