Its not as simple as just passing it to the next man over, Ederson has an outfield brain. He knows what pass to make and when to make it, he wont play the pass that immediately puts a player under pressure that they then dont have options to get out of, he'll play the pass into the free man, or if there is none, will play it into the space where a player will become free.
People like to attribute the quarterback role to holding midfielders and i get why but Ederson is truly the closest thing to a quarterback in football, he starts all the plays.
No other keeper on the planet has that kind of footballing intelligence, and that's the real difference not simply a much better distribution than everyone else.
He's a master of his game, so much so that the opposition respect that and dont even try to apply a high press because they know with Ederson there it's 11v 10 and puts themselves in a exploitable position.
We've heard other players say they change their gameplan when Ederson is in net because of this. The second he's not in net, it opens up the opportunity for teams to press us high again and force turnovers and we'll see a return of us giving away stupid goals more frequently than we currently do.
Ederson is integral to our entire game and im not sure how you're not seeing that after this many years. I can only assume some have become so used to it they no longer appreciate how unique he is. We'll all see it when he's gone.
