There have been 75 minutes on the clock on the Etihad Stadium when Ederson switched from goalkeeper to bodyguard, charging shoulder-first into Burnley’s Connor Roberts then dragging him away as he tried to sq. as much as the 19-year-old Rico Lewis.
“I will back up my team-mates under any circumstances,” Ederson tells Sky Sports activities as he displays on the flashpoint in a first-floor assembly room at Manchester Metropolis’s coaching floor.
“I will always try to protect them however I can, especially young players like Rico, who was only asking the question because there was off-the-ball contact on John [Stones] before the pushing. I was just defending him. It is part of the game. But I would do it under any circumstances.”
Ederson was booked for the incident. However there have been no complaints from Pep Guardiola. A 12 months in the past, he accused his gamers of missing “stomach and guts” for failing to defend Lewis from persistent fouling towards Tottenham. This time, he cherished the response.
“It makes us feel alive,” he stated in his press convention afterwards. “Last season was flat in that period, so this is better. We have to defend ourselves because nobody is going to defend us.”
Clearly, the message has acquired by to the gamers. Having roared again from final season’s stoop to win the treble, Metropolis are bringing the struggle once more, their dedication summed up by their goalkeeper.
“Yes, absolutely,” Ederson says when requested if he sees extra fireplace within the group now. “I feel a whole lot of it’s all the way down to the mentality now we have created within the squad. This is essential, particularly after final season, once we received every thing and loved immense success.
“I think maintaining that is even more difficult. But the group has this mentality to keep going and to win everything again.
“This will likely be our goal till the tip of the season.”
Ederson knows as well as anyone what it takes to get over the line. He has been there for every one of City’s successes under Guardiola. Having arrived at 23 in 2017, he is now one of their longest-serving players and a leader. Does he enjoy the added responsibility?
His reply affords an perception into the dressing-room dynamics fuelling Metropolis’s relentless quest for but extra silverware.
“Not many players are still here from when I arrived,” he smiles. “Only five or six if I’m not mistaken. Of course, they consider me as one of the leaders. Not just me but all the older players in the group.
“However I feel respect comes earlier than anything. The gamers right here take issues on board no matter who they’re chatting with, whether or not it is a 20-year-old or a 33-year-old within the case of Kyle [Walker].
“We are not precious here. We listen to each other and we take things on board very well. Whoever has to talk, to give some advice to a team-mate to push the group forward, is welcomed.”
It’s partly for that purpose that Metropolis have been capable of take up the departures of senior gamers similar to Ilkay Gundogan, Joao Cancelo and Aymeric Laporte within the final 12 months. The facet is youthful, its common age dropping beneath 27. And but, in keeping with Ederson, it’s steelier and extra skilled too.
“I think the team is a good mix of 30-year-olds and youngsters,” he explains. “And even the young players are very experienced due to what we have won. For example, Rico, Phil [Foden], these are really young guys but they have won a lot of trophies.
“Julian [Alvarez] and Erling [Haaland] have also won a lot. This experience stands out. Our team has a lot of it despite being so young. And I have to mention the mentality again, of always wanting more and always wanting to play good football. It shines through everywhere.”
It actually shines by in Ederson, whose essential position in final 12 months’s treble was just lately recognised with the Finest FIFA males’s goalkeeper of the 12 months award. He has reached the head. Excellent along with his arms; even higher along with his toes.
And but, in his seventh season at Metropolis, his urge for food for enchancment stays. “I try to improve every day and work every day to get better. I think every player has to have this mindset, because in life everyone can improve. Every day you can learn something new.”
It helps, in that sense, to have Guardiola as your boss. The supervisor’s future has been introduced into focus by Jurgen Klopp’s revelation that he’ll go away Liverpool on the finish of the season. However Ederson feels there’s extra to return from the 53-year-old at Metropolis.
“One day Pep will have to leave as well but I don’t see that happening now, I see it in a more distant future,” he says. “Of course, we can’t walk in other people’s shoes. I don’t know what is going on for somebody else, or what is going on in someone else’s head.
“However, principally in Klopp’s case, a call like that entails a number of elements past soccer – household, I do not know what else. He’s a human being, and that comes earlier than his career.
“Any human being has to put their family first, their mental health, their family’s wellbeing. I hope he can have a good period of rest because he is a great manager. He has done a lot for Liverpool.
“He has led one of the crucial troublesome groups now we have confronted over the previous couple of years. I want him a whole lot of luck for the longer term.”
Ederson’s outlook shows he has “matured”, to use Guardiola’s term. But catching Klopp’s side is the priority and it is partly thanks to their goalkeeper that it now feels like a possibility.
City’s season was drifting. But Ederson helped to ensure the FIFA Club World Cup in Saudi Arabia served as a turning point.
“It wasn’t just an important competition for us as players, but for the club as well,” explains Ederson. “The club hadn’t won this trophy, so it was an important competition.
“It stands out particularly for South American gamers similar to Julian and myself. In South America, they dwell this competitors extra. We all know that the followers are captivated by this trophy.
“I tried to pass on the importance of this title in South America to my team-mates. I think they absorbed the advice that I gave them and, from there, we have regained some momentum.
“We had a much less sturdy interval simply earlier than the Membership World Cup, however the workforce has discovered good type once more. Our mentality stands out once more as the primary purpose now we have been capable of do it.”
The result’s that they face Brentford on Monday Night time Soccer on the again of eight consecutive wins in all competitions.
The journey to west London is a clumsy task. They misplaced twice to Thomas Frank’s facet final season. However Kevin de Bruyne and Haaland can be found once more. It seems like Metropolis are hitting their stride.
“I think the few times this season that we have had a full squad, we have been more focused,” says Ederson. “We are back training normally. Erling is back from injury and so is Kevin after a long time out. It’s great to see all of our players together again on the pitch, healthy and ready to play the next match.”
For his or her rivals, in the meantime, it’s ominous. Latest proof suggests Ederson, specifically, is up for the struggle that lies forward.
Watch Brentford vs Man Metropolis dwell on Sky Sports activities Premier League and Fundamental Occasion from 6.30pm on Monday; kick-off 8pm