Ederson can be unlikely winner from Erling Haaland transfer at Man City

In the difficult first winter of his difficult first season in English football, it was pointed out to Pep Guardiola in the aftermath of their crushing 4-2 defeat to Leicester that his side had not completed any tackles in the first 35 minutes. His infamous response, "What are tackles?", was instantly seized on by critics as proof he could not achieve success with Manchester City — and then thrown back in their face with interest not long after.

The City manager was not daft of course, even if he had underestimated the specific dangers in English football, and set about on the training pitch to make his team better at winning second balls. However, his main point is as true now as it was then: that if the Blues are making a tackle their gameplan is already creaking, since the intention is to keep possession — train to keep the ball and you won't need to train tackling.

Five years and four Premier League titles later, it feels like too many people are still looking at the wrong metrics to judge Ederson. Replacing Claudio Bravo with the Brazilian in 2017 was one of the key turning points in Guardiola's time at the club and the goalkeeper has just won his third consecutive Golden Glove award for the most clean sheets in a league season.

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And yet, as he adds more individual and collective honours to his trophy cabinet there are still those — City fans and elsewhere — who think the club can do better because he doesn't save as many shots as they think he should. There is a case to be made that he underperformed in this aspect last season, and a stronger one that there are better shot-stoppers in the league and in world football, but those are