On 6ibrated and 26 years young, Gianluigi Donnarumma is the dream goalkeeper of every manager.
But when assigned to a style purist such as Pep Guardiola, he will notice that he takes on one of the ruthless roles in world football.
When Guardiola arrived in the city in 2016, he immediately threw England’s No. 1 and club captain Joe Hart, who was an excellent Shot stopper, and replaced him with Claudio Bravo to implement his property-based style in City.
But it was the signing of Ederson in 2017 that helped to think of the role of a goalkeeper in England again. His certainty with his feet on the ball put the trend for more and more Premier League teams to try to expand their last man.
That is the direction of modern football, seems to go in, with many trying to simulate, some successful, but most falter. Donnarumma is also more of a traditional player who his former manager of Paris Saint-Germain, Luis Enrique, led him to drop at the start of the new campaign and stated that he wanted a «different type of goalkeeper». This was despite the 2021 Yashin Trophy winner who helped the French club to win a Treble, including a very first UEFA Champions League title, which in turn earned him a balloon d’Or nomination.
You can’t help but ask how Donnarumma would fit under another Spaniard, which is also determined in his football philosophy.
A playmaker
In his first season in 2017, Ederson led the competition cards for the most successful passes (645) among keepers. At the time, the completion rate of the pass for keepers in the competition was 53.5, which has risen to 69.0 over the years last season.
His sobriety on the ball led his colleagues to include him more and more in competitions, with the Brazilian last season being the goalkeeper with the best pass completion rate (87.9 percent), on average about 31.7 passes per 90 minutes.
If Guardiola expects the same technical vessel from its last signing, Donnarumma must refine his game and come from his comfort zone. Last season italian was on average only 23.4 fits per 90, while they also had an inferior record for Edererson in long balls per 90 (9.4 to 6.0), long ball accuracy (57.92 percent to 44.6 percent) and forward passes per 90 (14.7 to 8.4).
But why would Guardiola – who have a similar football ideology like Enrique – to sign Donnarumma while he has Stefan Ortega and James Trafford in his ranks? Does he hope to evolve the giant to a ball player, or is he forced to calibrate again according to the changing trends in the competition?
Why Donnarumma?
In the 2024-25 season, Man City 44 gave goals in the competition, making it the first time since the arrival of Guardiola that De Graaf crossed the 40 Mark. One of the biggest reasons for this was the vulnerability of the city against fast breaks.
Last season, under the major competitions, the Premier League saw the most goals scored from fast breaks, 112, which is almost double that of the 2018-19 edition.
Goals scored from fast breaks in Premier League
2018/19 – 68
2019/20 – 76
2020/21 – 56
2021/22 – 54
2022/23 – 87
2023/24 – 83
2024/25 – 112
City was one of the worst affected because of the high line of defense, lack of control and balls of recovering actions in midfield because of the absence of the wounded Rodri. Last season, the club registered the second highest expected goals (XG) of counterattacks, with 8.1, a value that rose with an alarming pace of 3.6 in 2023-24.
Even in the three games so far this season, City is at the top of the list for most fast breaks, with five.
Guardiola is charged with these setbacks and will be inclined to favor a conventional shot stopper in Donnarumma. In the top five competitions in Europe, he has the best Save -Succs percentage with 74.94 percent (at least 300 rescues) since his debut for PSG in 2021. Compared, Edererson had a success rate of 65.7%.
Moreover, since his senior debut for AC Milan in 2015 he has admitted 40.6 goals less than the average goalkeeper. Only Atletico Madrid’s Jan Oblak (45.4) and Rennes’ Brica Samba (41.0) have better grades.
Another of the specialties of Donnarumma are penalties. He has saved 15 of the 58 penalties that he has confronted for Club and Land, with a respectable success rate of 25.8. In the meantime, Niererson has only stopped six of the 61 penalties against him, with his last rescue back in 2021.
In Shootouts, Donnarumma has an even more impressive record, which wins six of the seven times, including the semi -final and final of Euro 2020, where he received the player of the tournament.
A test awaits
Ultimately, only time will learn whether the 26-year-old will adapt to the rapid pace and the unpredictability of English football.
Much criticism has already been the head of Guardiola and Donnarumma’s way for their mismatch in playing styles, and how the manager may ruin a career.
Similar screams had surfaced when it was signed in 2022.
He was compared to Robert Lewandowski, Sergio Aguero, and even the false nine that took hundreds of goals under Guardiola by working extra and wearing the ball more. But 88 goals in 100 performances in the competition, while they only have 6.4 touches per match in the opposition box, prove that Guardiola can adapt to the strengths of specific players.
«I would not demand Gigi (Donnarumma) to do something that he feels uncomfortable with. We don’t ask Gigi to do what Ederson has done … It’s not about undermining the other. They are different,» Guardiola assured.
And although both fans and experts will soon be Donnarumma Nitpicken and compare with his predecessors and peers, the towering figure could be the last key to the puzzle to help this renewed man of the man City move along the shadows of his legends.
Published on September 14, 2025
