Following City’s disappointing defeat to fellow title contenders Liverpool, Claudio Bravo will be spending his New Year reflecting on his short career as a Manchester City player. Having moved from sunny Barcelona to miserable Manchester at the start of the summer amid a media storm regarding the ‘disgraced’ Joe Hart, Bravo has experienced a very up and down career to date. Guardiola is apparently poised to strike during January’s transfer window as he continues his search for a reliable goalkeeper who can actually use his feet. Bravo should be concerned that his boss could be ready to ridicule him in media for weeks before loaning him out to Europe, because that is apparently how he signs goalkeepers. Reports suggest that Pep was impressed by Reds shot-stopper Loris Karius during the pre-match warmups, and could be preparing a £60m bid for the German to bring some sort of consistency between City’s posts. Bravo may have conceded just 22 goals in 19 EPL and UCL games but a number of mistakes, including a disastrous sending off against former club Barcelona which was brought about due to poor footwork, his head may well and truly be on the chopping block. He needs something to change his fortunes and begin a run of consistent clean sheets.
My suggestion would be converting from the more continental short sleeves, to the much more British long sleeved shirt. If we take a look at the best EPL goalkeepers from the modern era, arguably Petr Cech and David De Gea, there is one common factor. Not rugby scrum caps, but long sleeved shirts. Short sleeves may be all well and good in Spain, but once he gets to a freezing cold evening kick-off in Merseyside, he could end up worrying more about the ball striking his exposed forearms than actually protecting the net behind him.
If the Chilean takes my advice of extra material I truly believe he can help his side begin to close down the 10 point deficit between themselves and league leaders Chelsea.