Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola reveals his blueprint for sweeper-keepers in detail and calls Claudio Bravo a ‘masterpiece’
Etihad chief hails his stopper for tactical brilliance against Huddersfield even though the Chilean has lost regular place
MANCHESTER CITY fans have ridiculed it — Pep Guardiola called it a masterpiece.
And should anyone ask why Guardiola wants his goalkeepers to play like a sweeper, he can point out Wednesday’s’ 5-1 FA Cup win over Huddersfield.
Supporters ironically cheered when under-fire Claudio Bravo made a rare save, shortly after conceding a goal he should have stopped.
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But to Guardiola, City’s Chile stopper turned the Etihad into the Sistine Chapel for sweeper-keepers — then explained for the first time in detail how his blueprint works.
City boss Pep said: “Claudio Bravo was a masterpiece.
“He took decisions short and wide, right and left, long and behind as we knew Huddersfield would use high pressing.”
Bravo lost his place as first choice to Willy Caballero in January.
But his midweek display means Guardiola will make a late decision on whether to recall him for today’s Premier League clash at Sunderland.
The City boss added: “They would press Garcia, press Kevin De Bruyne or Fernandinho to come. The space was behind them and he put the ball there and it was not a long ball — it was a pass.
“He took those decisions and he was right all the time. It was perfect. It was really perfect.
“It was definitely what I wanted. That was the reason we tried to adapt. After that the action can be won.
“Of course, the goalkeeper has less quality than the players — that is normal — but we try to train that to help us and to try to create the build-up from behind to up front.”
This is Guardiola’s answer to why he wants keepers starting moves — and why he axed Joe Hart.
And the Spaniard’s message is he will keep going with his masterplan to have every player on the pitch playing with the ball at his feet.
He said: “I tried here from the beginning, I will keep trying and it doesn’t mean to ‘play’ all the time with short passes — that is not what build-up means.
“To build up you have to see if your opponent comes, if they come you have more space behind the people pressing you. If they don’t come you have to play short.
“To create that you need time, you need the people who want to build up.
“Playing 30 or 40 passes to the full-back is not good build-up. It is not good when you use the goalkeeper four or five times in the same bit of action.
“That is because something is not going well.
“But you need time to improve as it is not easy to do that in the short term but my feeling is that it is getting better game by game.”
Guardiola’s strikeforce means he cannot afford for his keeper to be pumping balls forward. He said: “Maybe it is my opinion but when you have strikers that are 2½ metres tall you can play long balls. Our strikers are not strong enough with the long balls.
“We have Kelechi Iheanacho, Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus, too. And Raheem Sterling, Jesus Navas and Nolito. Even Leroy Sane is not the strongest.
“Out of 100 long balls, maybe we are going to lose 95.
“And when that happens, the ball comes back quicker with more players to attack you.
“Sometimes it is not easy as the opponents are so aggressive, sometimes it is not possible.”
That still does not solve the problem of the City fans’ perception of Bravo, 33, after his unfortunate record of being beaten by his first shot in 13 of his 25 games.
City defender Pablo Zabaleta is urging fans to get behind Bravo when he returns to the side full-time. Zab said: “We need to understand that sometimes it is tough for players when they go to another league.
“You need time to adapt and goalkeeper is not an easy position. You need confidence and he’s not a regular starter at the moment.
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“But we need to support him. We know he is a great goalkeeper and his distribution with his feet has been fantastic.”
Guardiola, 46, is certainly ready to persist with Bravo — who he signed in a £17million deal from his former club Barcelona last summer — and his philosophy of sweeper-keepers.
He said: “The most important thing for a keeper is to save the goals with the hands.
“But the way I believe to play football, when I grew up as a little boy in my consciousness as a human being and awareness with what I do as a trainer, it was so important for the goalkeeper to take decisions.”
LIKELY LINE-UPS — SUNDERLAND: Pickford, Jones, Kone, O’Shea, Oviedo, Gibson, Larsson, Ndong, Januzaj, Borini, Defoe.
MAN CITY: Caballero, Sagna, Stones, Kolarov, Fernandinho, Silva, De Bruyne, Toure, Sterling, Sane, Aguero.
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