Pep Guardiola has hailed a Manchester City player he believes has had a really strange season in 2023/24.
The Premier League comes to an end today, and Manchester City fans are hoping that everything will go smoothly against West Ham United at the Etihad Stadium.
If City win, or equal Arsenal’s result against Everton, then they will be crowned champions for the fourth year running – a feat that has never been achieved before.
So many players have had wonderful seasons again at the Etihad.
One man who has come in for a lot of credit in recent days is Stefan Ortega, who was something of a hero against Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday night. He made big saves from Dejan Kulusevski and Heung-min Son during the 2-0 win, with Jamie Carragher believing his contributions will see City finish as champions.
But ahead of the game with West Ham, Pep Guardiola spoke about Ederson and how fantastic he has been…
Pep Guardiola says he’s never seen someone have a season like Ederson in 2023/24 has for Manchester City
Today, Ortega will play for City because Ederson has been ruled out through injury.
During the game with Spurs, he fractured his eye socket after a collision with Cristian Romero. he was replaced by Ortega after playing on for a few minutes.
The Brazilian – recently hailed as ‘incredible’ by Josko Gvardiol – will also miss the FA Cup final with Manchester United at Wembley, although he likely would not have played anyway with Ortega playing in every previous round.
With everyone praising Ortega, Pep made sure to give Ederson his flowers on Friday – but he reckons it’s the first time someone has had a season like him coming off injured four times.
He said (via mancity.com): “We cannot define this period without Eddie. It is impossible. It’s been a strange season for him – four setbacks, four times injured – a keeper four times, with incredible knocks, I’ve never seen that.
“Today in modern football you need two proper, proper keepers. Before it was clear the first keeper and the second keeper, the distance was so big.
“And of course everybody knows, the team knows, they both know that Ederson is the first keeper, but the distance is not. Because you need it.”
Ederson has been key to Man City’s success
Ortega is rightly getting a lot of praise for his recent contributions for City.
But it’s nice to hear Pep lauding Ederson, a player who has been so integral to the success of this team for many years now.
The former Benfica man – who signed for City for around £35 million – was vital in helping Pep to implement his style of playing out from the back, and he has made huge contributions to the team’s success since 2017 when he arrived.
It has indeed been a bit of a frustrating campaign for him. For a goalkeeper to have come off injured four times in a season is definitely not something that happens too often.
Thankfully, City have arguably the best number two in the world in Ortega, and fans will back him to perform against West Ham and Manchester United.
