Zack Steffen nightmare highlights the unavoidable Man City conundrum facing Pep Guardiola

What a difference a week can make.

Last Sunday Ederson put thousands of hearts in mouths as he nonchalantly allowed the ball to roll towards the Manchester City goal. Just as the ball grazed the goalline and Liverpool's Diogo Jota lunged in, he calmly stroked the ball away as if to say: 'guys, relax, everything is under control.'

Fast-forward six days to an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley against the same opponent, and Ederson's understudy Zack Steffen was faced with a similar scenario. Only this time it ended in disaster, rather than relieved laughter; Steffen killed the ball with his first touch, got it stuck under his feet and could only watch as Sadio Mane dived in to deflect the ball into the goal.

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It was a freak accident from the American goalkeeper, the kind of thing he has not done before even if he isn't as accomplished as Ederson with the ball at his feet. But it was a costly error all the same, one that put City in a desperate situation in a high profile fixture.

In the post-mortem of City's 3-2 defeat, supporters and pundits alike questioned Pep Guardiola's decision to start Steffen over Ederson. Designating a 'cup keeper' is nothing new for Guardiola, but when it backfires in spectacular fashion against a team that doesn't need any extra help to score goals, then criticism is valid. However, there are of course two sides.

Affording your reserve goalkeeper opportunities to play is advisable, both to keep them sharp but also for squad morale and man management purposes. That's all well and good in the early rounds of cup competitions against lesser opponents, but against a side as good as Liverpool, you can argue that