Man City’s Ederson Would Be Huge Loss If He Misses Vital Liverpool Game

On Sunday all eyes will be on the crunch Premier League match between league leaders Liverpool and current champions Manchester City.

These are the type of games that get the punters searching online sportsbooks to find the best odds for such an important fixture.

People that like to put money on these big occasions always look at the potential team line-ups and what injuries have cropped up in the build up. In that regard, the fitness of current City first choice goalkeeper Ederson could be extremely important.

The Brazilian shot-stopper didn’t make the second half in Man City’s recent Champions League outing because of an injury.

After the draw with Atalanta (BBC Match Report), Pep Guardiola said:

“It’s a muscular problem,”

“It was a risk so we took him off as he was feeling it late in the first half.”

(Asked about Ederson’s chances of playing on Sunday) “I don’t know”.

Via BBC Sport

Missing Ederson would be a huge negative for Man City.

In Pep’s first season in charge at the Etihad, the goalkeeping position was one the Spaniard struggled to fix. He immediately didn’t like Joe Hart and he dropped the English international goalkeeper.

Guardiola then went back to former side FC Barcelona to bring in Chilean number one Claudio Bravo for an initial £13.75m fee (Via The Telegraph). But Bravo wasn’t the answer either as he struggled to adapt to the English style.

In that maiden year under Pep, he watched on as his side finished in third place and conceded a whopping thirty-nine goals with Claudio dropping out and being replaced by standby stopper Willy Caballero!

Guardiola wasn’t phased by the fact that his expensive purchase didn’t work out and in the next summer he spent even more to bring in Ederson.

The Brazilian was an instant success and he was a key cog in Guardiola’s football machine that went on to win the league by nineteen points. In that championship winning campaign, City conceded the least amount of goals and that proved Guardiola was correct in bringing Ederson from Benfica.

We all know that the world class Spanish coach loves a goalie that’s good with the ball at his feet and he gets that and more with Ederson. The twenty-six year old is probably the Premier League’s best sweeper keeper. He’s also physical enough to boss his penalty area and has the reactions to get across his line and defy strikers with some great saves!

If Ederson misses the game against Liverpool, then Bravo will come back in and that could be very problematic against Jurgen Klopp’s men.

Claudio was always suspect when dealing with crosses. In Andrew Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, Liverpool have two of the best full-backs in the business for supplying superb crosses into the opposition’s penalty area. That could worry the Chilean!

Then there’s the fact that Claudio Bravo hasn’t played regularly for a while and he could come up against the terrific striking trio of Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino. Those three players are some of the best attackers in the world and they could create numerous chances against City and really put a ring rusty Bravo to the test.

If Liverpool were to beat Man City on Sunday, then they will open up a nine point gap at the top of the table. That could be an insurmountable deficit to overcome and that’s exactly why Pep Guardiola and the Man City fans will be desperate to see Ederson in between the sticks at Anfield on Sunday!

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