It was August 24, 2016, Joe Hart’s 348th and last game for Manchester City; definitely this season, almost certainly for ever. The City faithful embarked on a chorus of “Stand up if you love Joe Hart.” Pep Guardiola rose to his feet, not in a terrible attempt at a PR gesture or out of mockery towards a man he was exiling but because he was so absorbed in the match, and perhaps so unaccustomed to hearing chants in English, that he was unaware of the soundtrack as he tried to convey tactical instructions to his players.
Fast forward to March 1, 2017. Hart’s successor Claudio Bravo made what had seemed a regulation save from Huddersfield midfielder Jack Payne. The masses at the Etihad Stadium got to their feet again. Many gave Bravo a standing ovation. He had saved a shot. This was mockery, just as it was when they cheered as the Chilean held on to a cross.
After the game, Guardiola praised Bravo for his “amazing” performance. Two days later, he upgraded his opinion. The goalkeeper’s decision-making was, he said, “a masterpiece”. It brought back memories of Bravo’s City bow at Old Trafford in September, a seemingly error-strewn display when he was at fault for Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s goal and, in something Jose Mourinho still mentions half a year later, could have been sent off for a lunge at Wayne Rooney. Guardiola branded it “one of the best performances I’ve ever seen.”
Friday marks the six-month anniversary of a debut when he flirted with disaster. It has been a period of Trumpian boasts about Bravo from Guardiola. He has adopted absolutist positions that bear little resemblance to the facts. They may have been exaggerated attempts at persuasion but it appears he has lost the argument.
Bravo’s last outing felt like the day the supporters rebelled against the rhetoric, accepted the evidence before their eyes and voiced a belief he has become a liability. Saturday should bring his next game, assuming the Catalan maintains his policy of using his second-choice goalkeeper in the FA Cup. While Guardiola has complained that City keep getting drawn away in the competition, a trip to the Riverside Stadium could have an unexpected benefit. At least if the majority present taunt Bravo, it will be because they are Middlesbrough fans.
To some, Bravo is the human hologram. He appears to be there, but a shortage of saves suggests there is no actual physical entity. To others, he is a colander; he sieves goals because everything goes straight through him.
Against Everton in January, he accomplished the unwanted goalkeeping grand slam without actually stopping a shot: he was beaten to his left, to his right, above his head and through his legs. If the great goalkeepers have a presence, and Peter Schmeichel’s star jumps made the 6ft 3in Dane feel a giant, Bravo gives the impression he has none. His capacity to get out of the way of shots makes him seem smaller than his 6ft frame.
At such times, it is worth remembering that he is the most capped Chilean ever and a double Copa America winner and was Barcelona’s first choice for two years and one of the outstanding goalkeepers in the last World Cup. The reminders are necessary, because there is scant evidence in his City career of how or why.
Guardiola has taken to citing the International Federation of Football History & Statistics’ rankings for the world’s best goalkeeper. Bravo was placed fourth in 2016, far ahead of his replacement at Barcelona, Marc-Andre ter Stegen. The men who he displaced and who, in turn, have displaced him in the City goal, Hart and Willy Caballero, did not pick up a vote between them.
It feels incongruous, as though this is another Claudio Bravo. The City variant was dropped after conceding six goals to as many shots on target against Everton and Tottenham. His save percentage in the Premier League, a mere 54.4, places him above only Fraser Forster among regular goalkeepers in the division. He has made Hart appear a martyr and undermined Guardiola’s case for a footballing goalkeeper. Instead, he has made his manager look an impractical idealist, a dreamer who has selected a midfielder in goal, but one whose passing, while tidy, is nothing like as incisive as expected and whose touch proved nothing like as precise as was promised when it led to his red card in Camp Nou.
It is worth noting that, in between celebrating Hart, the City fans also sang Guardiola’s name in August. It was not a display of dissent when they serenaded the goalkeeper. It was when they barracked his successor earlier this month.
It is hard to imagine a manager as stubborn as Guardiola abandoning his beliefs and simply buying a goalkeeper whose sole forte is shot-stopping. Yet it is pertinent City face Middlesbrough this weekend. If Aitor Karanka grants Victor Valdes a belated FA Cup debut, it will provide a comparison between Guardiola’s past and his present. The Spaniard has already excelled against City once, making a series of saves in November’s 1-1 draw. Karanka commented undiplomatically: “He is not the same keeper he was at Barcelona because if he had been at that level, he would not have been here.” Yet Valdes has a save percentage of 69.6 percent in the Premier League this season, within touching distance of Thibaut Courtois' and David de Gea’s statistics.
If Guardiola is desperate for a ball-playing goalkeeper who understands his ethos, he could do worse than engineer a reunion in the summer. Because Bravo, it seems, has reached the point of no return: with the fans and presumably, as a result, at the club.
Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 10:23 pm
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