Pep Guardiola says Claudio Bravo delivered an FA Cup 'masterpiece'
Sunday 5 March 2017 00:21, UK
Pep Guardiola claims under-fire goalkeeper Claudio Bravo delivered a "masterpiece" in Manchester City's midweek win over Huddersfield.
Such an assertion may raise eyebrows given the Chilean was considered to have endured another difficult night in the 5-1 FA Cup replay victory at the Etihad Stadium.
Critics rounded on him after an error gifted the Championship side an early goal and fans sarcastically cheered when he later made a save.
The 33-year-old, signed for £15.4m from Barcelona, has failed to convince since replacing England No 1 Joe Hart earlier in the season, and was dropped after conceding six goals from six successive shots in back-to-back games against Everton and Tottenham.
Guardiola said: "The most important thing for keepers is to save the balls with their hands, but the way I believe in playing football - from when I grew up as a little boy and my conscious awareness as a human being and as a trainer - what I want to do is so important.
"To take decisions like Claudio Bravo did in the last game was a masterpiece, how he took decisions, short and right, left, along and behind.
"We knew Huddersfield would be high pressing. For example they would press to Kevin De Bruyne, to Fernandinho and the space was in behind them.
"How he put the ball there - it wasn't a long ball, it was a pass. How he took the decisions right all the time, it was really perfect, definitely what I want from Claudio and, of course, Willy.
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"The goalkeeper has less quality than the outfield players - that's normal - but we try to train that to help us to create the build-up from behind to front.
"People believe I want to build up with 30-40 passes between the full-backs. That is not good build-up. When you use the goalkeeper four or five times in the same action, that is not good. That is because something is not going well.
"You need time to improve but my feeling is it is a little bit better game by game."
Despite this, Caballero, who has played five of the last seven games, is expected to return for Sunday's Sky Live Premier League game at Sunderland.
