25 | Gianluigi Donnarumma - 2025/26

[MarcIsTired1986]

Looked very nervous playing out from the back and the defenders looked unsure when receiving the ball under pressure, his long kicking was atrocious but for shot stopper & commanding his area he was brilliant, needs time to find his feet.

Rag

 

[merz]

Looked very nervous playing out from the back and the defenders looked unsure when receiving the ball under pressure, his long kicking was atrocious but for shot stopper & commanding his area he was brilliant, needs time to find his feet.

saw it completely different. calm and organized our defense well. his passing was better than I anticipated. long balls can improve for sure.
if I had to describe him with one word its aura.

 

[heslops barnet]

Rag

Was in the lower south stand, I can only comment on what I saw

 

[MarcIsTired1986]

Was in the lower south stand, I can only comment on what I saw

I didn't even read what you typed - I just thought I'd randomly call you a Rag, like you do.

 

[jamielowndes]

Almost flawless performance.

The longer distribution was pretty wayward sometimes but that's something that can be worked on. Not to mention the rest of the team lost the ball a lot more than you'd expect.

The shot stopping though. He was absolutely unreal. Will always miss Ederson but this softens the blow a lot.

 

[heslops barnet]

Almost flawless performance.

The longer distribution was pretty wayward sometimes but that's something that can be worked on. Not to mention the rest of the team lost the ball a lot more than you'd expect.

The shot stopping though. He was absolutely unreal. Will always miss Ederson but this softens the blow a lot.

Potentially a better shot stopper and huge presence in the area and especially corners….

 

[jamielowndes]

Not convinced he's the one for us long term but didn't cause any problems. Made saves that you expect a keeper to make! Maybe it will work but I still think Trafford is a better fit long term for our play style.

I almost respect how much you're willing to double down on this. Don't know whether you're just doing a bit for the bites or what.

I genuinely don't believe Trafford is noticeably better as a distributor than Donnarumma (and im not sure where this has come from in the first place), and he's shown visible panic when under pressure more than once (the Spurs game was bad even ignoring the goal).

As for shot stopping, it's not even worth justifying with a debate.

 

[jamielowndes]

Potentially a better shot stopper and huge presence in the area and especially corners….

Yeah, he's absolutely a better shot stopper. As a lifelong keeper and fan of the position, I was just a massive Ederson fan. As I am a Donnarumma fan too.

 

[heslops barnet]

Yeah, he's absolutely a better shot stopper. As a lifelong keeper and fan of the position, I was just a massive Ederson fan. As I am a Donnarumma fan too.

Possibly help us win more games than Eddie, loved Eddie but was sometimes infuriating with his ‘brain farts’

 

[Snape]

Adebayor giving him lessons!

 

[mancityvstoke]

I felt very confident with him yesterday. Good signing after all.

 

[Le Havre Oswald]

I felt very confident with him yesterday. Good signing after all.

Almost as if the best keeper in the world would turn out to be actually decent. ;)

 

[cmcm0808]

We needed a shot stopper and a presence because the pros of having that style of goalkeeper with the current set of players we have outweighs having a more ball playing goalkeeping who isn't necessarily as good as an all out shot stopper.

You hit the nail on the head, Donnarumma is exactly the type of keep we need at the moment.

 

[r.soleofsalford]

Hopefully the games of 2 shots 2 goal for the opposition are over.

 

[Chris in London]

One thing I think hasn't been said about Donnarumma: he is intelligent.

Like a lot of Guardiola signings - Bernie, Gundo, Reijnders, EH etc. He plainly prefers to work with players for who using their head means more than being good at corners.

I think Donnarumma will fit in just fine.

 

[supercity88]

Thought he was excellent yesterday. You can see where his passing is weaker than a typical Pep player, but I don't think it's something that can't be improved. Some of his passes were forcing our defenders to receive the ball and take a touch to face the right direction. But they're more than comfortable doing that so it's not a huge issue.

I do wonder if Pep will mix them up a bit more than is traditional and in games we expect to dominate the ball, with the opposition sat back we might use one. And in games we expect a little bit more pressure we use the other.

Edit - talking about mixing goalkeeper's up with Trafford playing if it better suits the opposition we're facing.

 

[01cravend]

Nowt wrong with lumping forward instead of trying risky passes especially when you have a 6'5 unit up top. Haaland's all round play was brilliant, and staying on his toes due to Donna's tendency to go long probably helped with that. Most touches he's had this season(inc internationals and club world cup).

 

[ninjamonkey]

Why is his knee slide celebration being claimed to be towards the united fans? It wasn't at all. It was to the city fans in south stand. Away fans are next to us but it was in no way directed towards them. I know this because I was right infront of him.

 

[De Bruyne Supremacy]

Good debut, but it was pretty shocking seeing the CB take short goal kicks for him.

Clearly Pep doesn’t rate him with his feet if he’s not trusted to play it short, I hope the fanboys stick with him when he gets given that responsibility and looks shaky for 6 months, because it will take time.

we have literally done this tactic with Ederson in goal and CBs taking goal kicks on occasion over the years. says a lot about how much you pay attention to what is actually going on in games

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Why is his knee slide celebration being claimed to be towards the united fans? It wasn't at all. It was to the city fans in south stand. Away fans are next to us but it was in no way directed towards them. I know this because I was right infront of him.

Still needs a crying moment to become a legend.