Calamity Claudio Bravo continued his catastrophic start to life in the Premier League this weekend with another awkward display of goalkeeping, letting in three goals on his home turf a Manchester City crashed to a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Antonio Conte’s Chelsea.
Bravo has looked more Massimo Taibi to begin his Manchester City career than Manuel Neuer.
In fairness to the Chilean stopper he could do seemingly nothing about Diego Costa’s close range smash, the second and third goals though? City fans will feel they probably should have been stopped.
For Chelsea’s second Bravo was static and showing Willian 70-to-80% of the goal. The Brazilian international kept his cool, looked up, and slotted into the corner — Bravo just watched the ball roll into the net. Chelsea’s third came from a long ball that released Eden Hazard one-on-one with City’s number one. Hazard slowed his run opened his body and fired past Bravo… at his near post — a place a goalkeeper has no excuse to be beaten.
Unfortunately this is all too familiar for Manchester City fans, and their replacement for Joe Hart has played just eleven games for the club in the Premier League. You cant help but wonder whether some of the late goals — some of the soft goals — would’ve been saved by England, and now Torino’s, number one.
When Pep arrived at Manchester City it was his way or no way, and that involved “implementing” expansive possession football that arguably? Manchester City already played under Pellegrini. Apparently, though, Pep’s biggest gripe? Joe Hart’s inability and apparent refusal to play out of the back.
Because of this Guardiola brought in the 33-year-old Claudio Bravo from Barcelona, to replace the best goalkeeper Manchester City has ever had.
The thinking behind Guardiola’s “philosophy” of building from the back, is that if the goalkeeper has better outfield skills he can contribute a numerical advantage in attack when play begins in his teams own half. More players equals more space for other players which in turn equals more possession which should turn into goals.
The best form of defense? Hold on to the ball.
Sounds like a pretty sound philosophy and it may have worked in leagues like the Bundesliga, and La Liga but it isn’t working in the Premier League so far, that much is evident. Score more, conceded less — that’s Pep’s goal — but honestly? Bravo is leaving Man City wildly exposed and results are suffering.
It’s clear that Bravo had very good stats when he was in goal for Barcelona — one of the two best teams in Spain by a country mile —, that much is irrefutable. Bravo kept 0.50 clean sheets per ninety minutes, and had a whopping 3.40 saves per goal, per ninety minutes. He was a stalwart in Barcelona’s attacking game too completing a mind-boggling 86% of his distributions even if they were for an average of just 22 meters.
In a league like La Liga where the game flows more, where the game is more technical than physical, this style of football can thrive. Some call the Premier League the best, some call it the fastest, but ultimately the standard of teams up and down the league is higher and you get away with much, much less.
Bravo looked woeful in his first game for the club — the Manchester Derby — and inexplicably Pep Guardiola called his performance “one of the greatest goalkeeping performances he had ever seen.” City won the game, but City fans and Pep alike will surely have hoped Bravo’s nervousness and his error that led to Ibrahimovic’s goal would not be the beginning of many more.
But it was.
According to whoscored.com Bravo has had just four games at a seven or above rating all season. Those came against Swansea, Burnley, Bournemouth, and in a 2-0 loss to Tottenham. The combined total average rating for the other seven games he has played in the Premier League? 6.01.
Even in the Spurs game where the Chilean had his highest rating of the season so far — you feel like he should’ve been in a better position to stop the bobbled mess that was the own goal, and that he should have at least gotten hands on Alli’s shot somehow.
Meanwhile, Joe Hart is enjoying life in Torino.
Hart just edges Bravo on clean sheets, and boasts a significantly better saves per goal ratio of 2.54 per ninety minutes, and is completing just 7% less of his distributions at an average 10 meters greater than Bravo’s 33 per completion. Even going back to last season when Bravo was at Barcelona, he wasn’t much better than Hart in the goalkeeping department.
Furthermore, in the three games Wily Caballero has started this season for Manchester City his statistics are wildly similar to Bravo’s on both sides of the ball. Goals conceded are 1.00 Caballero vs 1.09 per ninety for Bravo, clean sheets 0.18 Bravo vs 0 for Caballero, and distribution completions 76% Bravo vs 72% Caballero at an average of 31m for Caballero, and 33m for Bravo.
Goalkeepers are on the field to stop shots, to deny goals, to make saves. Unfortunately, Bravo isn’t very good at any of these things — that much is evident. The biggest indictment on him is that even if you were to take into consideration his weaknesses regarding his goalkeeping ability, he doesn’t even come up with big saves in the big moments.
If you believe that Manchester City can win the Premier League with Claudio Bravo in goal, you must also believe to some degree that they could win with Wily Caballero in goal too. While Thibaut Courtois put on a masterclass in goal for Chelsea yesterday, Bravo only saved one of four shots on target.
For now? Joe Hart can enjoy his football in Italy knowing that Manchester City fans — and hopefully Pep Guardiola — realise the grass is not always greener on the other side.
