Players made scapegoats and unfairly treated by fans

[MarsLlama]

Bravo suffered simply because he replaced Hart

No, Bravo was a fucking nightmare. In his first season he embarrassed himself more often than not when he put on the shirt. He went from one of the most respected goalkeepers in the world to a guy who literally couldn't save any shot with power on it. He improved in later seasons as a backup but never got criticised just because he replaced Hart. He got criticised because he was awful. His first season will go down forever as one of the worst goalkeeping seasons in Premier League history.

 

[MarsLlama]

So were you not sat in the ground every time there were massive groans when he was announced

Yeah, because him being in the team meant there was an extremely good chance he was going to cost us a goal. Fans pay good money to go and see City and were understandably frustrated that Pep kept picking a guy who usually meant that they didn't get to see a good result.

 

[Sheikh rattle and roll]

No, Bravo was a fucking nightmare. In his first season he embarrassed himself more often than not when he put on the shirt. He went from one of the most respected goalkeepers in the world to a guy who literally couldn't save any shot with power on it. He improved in later seasons as a backup but never got criticised just because he replaced Hart. He got criticised because he was awful. His first season will go down forever as one of the worst goalkeeping seasons in Premier League history.

I disagree I don’t think people were happy that he replaced Hart and therefore got on his back and his performances dipped and he lost all confidence then struggled badly
Just my view look at his career and stats he was a top class winner who didn’t fit in
Sometimes that happens
I remember people being furious that Hart was dropped
Imagine coming into a club knowing the fans don’t want you
Oh incidentally it was absolutely the right decision to drop Hart ( hindsight obviously)

 

[BillyShears]

I disagree I don’t think people were happy that he replaced Hart and therefore got on his back and his performances dipped and he lost all confidence then struggled badly
Just my view look at his career and stats he was a top class winner who didn’t fit in
Sometimes that happens
I remember people being furious that Hart was dropped
Imagine coming into a club knowing the fans don’t want you
Oh incidentally it was absolutely the right decision to drop Hart ( hindsight obviously)

It can happen that players don’t work out. And in particular goalkeepers are a funny breed. I think it was Pep who said it or someone on the coaching staff: apparently Bravo never recovered from his first OT derby when he came for a couple of things and flapped. It was by all accounts psychologically downhill for him from there.

 

[MarsLlama]

I disagree I don’t think people were happy that he replaced Hart and therefore got on his back and his performances dipped and he lost all confidence then struggled badly
Just my view look at his career and stats he was a top class winner who didn’t fit in
Sometimes that happens
I remember people being furious that Hart was dropped
Imagine coming into a club knowing the fans don’t want you
Oh incidentally it was absolutely the right decision to drop Hart ( hindsight obviously)

No, come on, an athlete at the top of his game simply cannot be that mentally weak. Dias has come in to replace Kompany (and most of us didn't want Dias either) and handles it like a grown man despite being ten years younger than Bravo was at the time. There were smatterings of criticism early on before he played but had he ignored it and, crucially, not fucked up several times in his first five matches, the fans would have warmed to him.

The last few years have shown that we were not as attached to Hart as we thought we were, because we talk about Zabaleta and Touré and Kompany all the time and I almost never even hear Joe's name mentioned, especially in a positive light. Bravo didn't have some impossible task replacing him. He just did it badly.

 

[domalino]

It can happen that players don’t work out. And in particular goalkeepers are a funny breed. I think it was Pep who said it or someone on the coaching staff: apparently Bravo never recovered from his first OT derby when he came for a couple of things and flapped. It was by all accounts psychologically downhill for him from there.

I think we needed a fall guy to take the brunt of the anger about dropping Hart anyway.

I know there was a lot of talk about how they almost went for Ederson in 2016, but he was 21 and had only spend half a season starting for Benfica and they essentially bottled it, went for Bravo only to go for Ederson a year later.

I dont think getting Ederson in 2016 would have gone well, and I dont think Willy starting and Hart on the bench would have gone well, so all in all I think Bravo was something of a necessary sacrifice.

Keepers are odd though - Hart has never recovered from being dropped either.

 

[Sheikh rattle and roll]

It can happen that players don’t work out. And in particular goalkeepers are a funny breed. I think it was Pep who said it or someone on the coaching staff: apparently Bravo never recovered from his first OT derby when he came for a couple of things and flapped. It was by all accounts psychologically downhill for him from there.

That derby was shocking wasn’t it

 

[nellyonthewing]

We have had a few over the years.

Mahrez
Gundogan
Edghill
Ian Bower

who would you say would make out top ten unfairly treated scapegoats as players and why do we always seem to have one?!

Sit down Bowyer ..sit down Bowyer was the cry from the kippax.

 

[Sheikh rattle and roll]

No, come on, an athlete at the top of his game simply cannot be that mentally weak. Dias has come in to replace Kompany (and most of us didn't want Dias either) and handles it like a grown man despite being ten years younger than Bravo was at the time. There were smatterings of criticism early on before he played but had he ignored it and, crucially, not fucked up several times in his first five matches, the fans would have warmed to him.

The last few years have shown that we were not as attached to Hart as we thought we were, because we talk about Zabaleta and Touré and Kompany all the time and I almost never even hear Joe's name mentioned, especially in a positive light. Bravo didn't have some impossible task replacing him. He just did it badly.

He was poor in the early days I accept that but sport is a funny business isn’t it
I think confidence plays a huge huge part no matter what level you play at (remember Gary Birtles years ago banging them in for fun At Forest then couldn’t score at Utd confidence shot so funny )
Look at the difference in Stones with his confidence back
Dias has been magnificent but I not sure he wasn’t wanted ( I didn’t want Koulibaly personally )and he isn’t playing in front of a crowd groaning every time he touches the ball either so who knows
We are sorted in both positions now so alL good

 

[Nails]

I think we needed a fall guy to take the brunt of the anger about dropping Hart anyway.

I know there was a lot of talk about how they almost went for Ederson in 2016, but he was 21 and had only spend half a season starting for Benfica and they essentially bottled it, went for Bravo only to go for Ederson a year later.

I dont think getting Ederson in 2016 would have gone well, and I dont think Willy starting and Hart on the bench would have gone well, so all in all I think Bravo was something of a necessary sacrifice.

Keepers are odd though - Hart has never recovered from being dropped either.

As a keeper who played at a decent level, I've been shocked at Hart's fall. Keepers tend to be quite prone to glitches in confidence and they're usually quite egotistic. Hart was a great shot-stopper, but wasn't great at commanding his box and his footwork was iffy. I think he was a little amazed that Guardiola ditched him and his fragile ego just splintered. I find it very sad. (But Guardiola was absolutely correct to replace him).