It’s easy to look back now with Blue-tinted glasses the ease in which Pep Guardiola transformed English football as soon as he arrived at Manchester City.
In reality, to spark the 14-trophy run of the last six years, Guardiola had to set the foundations in a difficult first season, with City finishing 15 points adrift of champions Chelsea in third. Without that season, though, City wouldn’t have become centurions a year later, beginning a journey that ended in the Champions League trophy in June of this year.
Despite all the fanfare of Guardiola’s arrival at the Etihad, it’s tempting to forget that fans were openly criticising his selection in his first competitive home game over his treatment of club legend and firm fan favourite Joe Hart.
It was a battle that Guardiola stuck his heels in and won, with history justifying the decision to seek a ball-playing goalkeeper to start his attacks. Before Ederson completely reinvented the role of goalkeeper, though, there was the very curious City career of Claudio Bravo.
After Guardiola had told Hart that he wanted a different style of goalkeeper, Willy Caballero started City’s first game of the season, before Hart was recalled at home in what was clearly a farewell.
I think Willy made a good pre-season – really, really good,” said Guardiola. “He gave me today a lot of confidence for his build-up play, for his personality and that’s why I choose him.”
Regarding Hart, the manager said: “I have to take a decision and I cannot deny what I feel. If the fans are not happy I can completely understand. I would like all my decision to make everyone happy but it is impossible.
“I am here and I must take a decision. The people some will agree and some will not. I understand. That’s why Manchester City asked me to be the new manager. You have to accept and follow me. I believe in the way I want to play.”
Hart was shipped out on loan to Torino, and in came Barcelona’s Champions League-winning goalkeeper Bravo. Guardiola and Bravo didn’t cross paths at the Nou Camp, but Guardiola’s influence was set in Catalonia, and Bravo fit the bill as a player who could build from the back.
Guardiola said that he wanted his goalkeeper to give the ball to his forwards ‘in better conditions’ to concede as few counter-attacks.
He said: “That is the reason why, nothing else, and when you can build up from the goalkeeper to the central defender, full backs, holding midfielders, everything is fluid, fluid. It’s easier for everybody.”
Reflecting on his City career with the Players’ Tribune, Bravo said last year: “When I got to England, in 2016, the goalkeeper’s job was to smash the ball as far as possible. The lower-half teams would hit it long and go for the famous second ball.
Pep wanted me to take part in the build-up. I was going to play it short, to make myself available for the return pass. If there was no space on the left, I was going to send it to the right to restart the attack. We were trying to change the game.
“There was a lot of buzz around it. Some people didn’t like it very much.”
To say people didn’t like it was something of an understatement.
When Bravo dropped the ball at the feet of Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Old Trafford on his City debut, the response in the stands and in the media was predictable. With only two training sessions at the club under his belt, Bravo showed his potential as a ‘sweeper-keeper’, but was guilty of two more errors that were not punished, prompting pantomime jeers from the Stretford End whenever he got the ball.
If Guardiola had doubled down on his goalkeeper decision when Hart went, he was tripling-down here.
It is not easy the first game after two training sessions coming here and play with that personality,” he said. “It is not a mistake because he attacked the ball.
“I know it’s risk [using Bravo in the build-up]. If we lose the ball it is a goal against us but when we win with that, we win many, many, many things.”
“What Claudio did was one of the best performances I’ve ever seen,” he continued. “Until my last day in England I will try to play with the ball as much as possible. I know it’s impossible for 90 minutes but I’m sorry, I will not negotiate that.”
With the clear backing of the manager, Bravo continued as first-choice goalkeeper as Guardiola was given a tough welcome to English football. It didn’t help Bravo’s case that he was sent off on his return to Barcelona in the Champions League for handball outside of the area, with City crashing to a 4-0 defeat.
By February, Bravo was severely under fire, with articles declaring him the worst signing of the season and Guardiola having to publicly defend him again. His save percentage of 55.4 was the fourth lowest of any goalkeeper in the Premier League since 2009, with the straw finally broken in February when he conceded six goals in two games without saving a single shot on goal.
Guardiola insisted that the Chilean’s confidence wouldn’t be knocked, but he clearly wanted more from his stopper. Caballero was recalled for the next ten games, including the Champions League last-16 exit to Monaco. He was recalled after City went four games without victory, but a calf injury ended his season prematurely, and he would only play seven more league games for Guardiola over the next three seasons.
After tracking Benfica goalkeeper Ederson a year before, the Brazilian was signed in 2017 and immediately took the starting spot, providing Guardiola with the ball-playing presence -combined with more confidence – that Bravo couldn’t. Bravo’s only league outings in 2017/18 were against Liverpool when Ederson was caught by Sadio Mane’s accidental kung-fu kick, and the final two games of the campaign when the title was secured.
Instead, Bravo’s role changed to become the cup goalkeeper, playing every minute of the run to the Carabao Cup final. He saved two penalties in the fourth-round shootout win over Wolves, and made the decisive stop in the next round at Leicester when that too went to penalties. He provided the assist for Sergio Aguero to open the scoring in the final against Arsenal, ending his second season with a trophy but only 13 appearances.
His next outing resulted in a trophy, with City winning the Community Shield at the start of 2018/19, but he would rupture his Achilles shortly after to rule him out for the season. City won the Carabao Cup and Premier League again, but Bravo was on the physio’s table for the entirety.
So it was a boost for him that when recovered, he helped secure another Community Shield 12 months on, his first appearance back, as Bravo saved Georgino Wijnaldum’s penalty in the shootout win over Liverpool.
“His build-up, he was calm and he won the game for us today,” Guardiola said. “Everyone made an incredible contribution but he won the game. He is an incredible second keeper. He saved the game many times today and of course, he had to save the penalty.”
Bravo’s role had clearly changed as Ederson was the undisputed number one. That was underlined when Bravo replaced Ederson in the San Siro against Atalanta due to injury, but wouldn’t finish the game due to a silly red card that saw Kyle Walker infamously end the fixture in goal. With Ederson out, Bravo was shaky in defeat at Anfield, and he got three games over Christmas after another Ederson red, but couldn’t keep his place.
Once again, Bravo’s role was the cup goalkeeper, starting every FA Cup game until missing the semi-final defeat against Arsenal through illness. He was the Carabao Cup hero again against Aston Villa in the final, making a crucial last-minute save to secure his second League Cup. With his contract expiring in June of that year, Bravo signed a brief extension to finish the season after the lockdowns extended the campaign into the summer.
On one hand, Bravo’s recovery into a cup-winning backup goalkeeper is a testament to his character and longevity – as is the fact he is still playing at Real Betis at the age of 40. On the other, the fact that he played more cup games than league games for City having arrived as the high-profile new number one, tells a story of its own.
Ask most City fans, and they will recall the United errors on debut or the Atalanta red as evidence of his proneness to a gaffe. They will also thank him for playing a key role in lifting four trophies, while his role in rewriting the role of goalkeeper will probably go under the radar.
Ask Bravo himself, and he calls his spell at City ‘successful in every sense.’ Yes, really.
“People say I had a tough first season, but it was a learning process,” he wrote in the Players Tribune article.
“Of course, we had some problems. We also had six or seven players in the lineup who knew they’d be gone the next season, so they knew they would not be part of the long-term project. But it was always going to take time. To me, it was enriching to play in a team like that.
“All four of my seasons there were amazing. I felt valued within the club. I had a great relationship with Pep. My kids learned English, and we grew a lot as a family.
The press? I never cared what they wrote. Not at all.
“I guess people remember different things. When I look back at that time, I recall that I played in two League Cup finals and two Community Shields — and won them all.”
When Hart left, Guardiola had previously challenged him to prove him wrong.
“I know his value and I know his talent,” the boss said. “I was clear with what I was looking for. I am here at Manchester City because they contacted me to play the way I like, the way I grew up.
Maybe Joe will stay here and be a player who will fight with the other goalkeepers to convince me to play (him). It’s simple like that. He knows from the beginning what I feel and what is the situation.”
Guardiola stood firm on his stance, and if he needed a year of transition with Bravo to evolve into the current system that relies so much on Ederson, hindsight suggests it was worth it. Bravo also did what Hart wouldn’t, and fought to win his way back after that nightmare first season.
Bravo was initially judged as a failure, and the worst signing of the season. With his place in the middle of the transition from Hart to Ederson, he could instead go down as one of Guardiola’s most important.
Even if it wasn’t quite ‘successful in every sense.’
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