I hate that i’m making this post but I feel like I have to.
I want to start off by saying that I have nothing against James Trafford. He’s an excellent young goalkeeper who was vital in our EFL cup winning campaign and he’s going to have a fantastic career with whoever he goes to next. But this revisionism that I’ve seen in the past few days towards Donnarumma has been winding me up.
The man has singlehandedly kept us in games this season at times. Made a save of the season contender on his debut against United. Has kept the score down in games that we’ve lost back when we weren’t playing well, that could have been humiliations without him. Made an unbelievable match winning save at Anfield. He’s not perfect, but the majority of footballers aren’t.
He had one bad game against Madrid and now all of a sudden the narrative seems to have shifted to “signing Donnarumma was a mistake and he’s a liability”, completely ignoring all the good that he’s done while he’s been here. It feels like this sub has been rooting for him to fail from the moment he got here just because they wanted the story of Trafford being our #1, but unfortunately football isn’t a fairytale.
I feel for Trafford if he believed he was going to be our #1 in the long term, but when the opportunity comes around to sign a player of Donnarumma’s quality you don’t say no. This is a goalkeeper who has been voted the best on the planet twice, and is only one of two goalkeepers in history to have won Euro player of the tournament. He also made some phenomenal saves for us this season, shows real passion when we score and seems to genuinely love the club and is grateful to be here.
The board did not make a mistake signing Donnarumma, he’s an incredible goalkeeper who I’m glad is at this club and who I hope is still here for many years to come.
by Low_Bridge_1141
26 Comments
master at putting out fires that he started – absolute goat this guy
You know many clubs would be waiting to snatch him up. We need to keep him.
I find it ridiculous this even needs to be a conversation.
Donnarumma is the better keeper and was a phenomenal signing.
There is no need for this, i love traf as he is one of our own but anyone who wants him to start over gigio is dumb
Can we put a full stop with the comparisons between the two in general. Let’s not be that fan base. Unless one of them starts making obvious mistakes consistently, let’s just assume Pep and the coaching staff know best who to play when.
There is no revisionism, even before donnarumma was signed people knew that he is gonna make our build-up worse and we won’t be able to play possession football as easily, and that he will make errors (from corners and stuff).
He isn’t being criticised, we all know he loves the club and has given his best. It’s not his fault for not being great at ball playing, he has different attributes and we knew that when he signed.
People are saying **pep** should start Trafford in goal not cos donnarumma is bad or anything, but cos Trafford’s profile fits our system much better, we look more comfortable in seeing out leads for example.
Why is this recent, I’d guess cos in the last few weeks Trafford has proven he’s not even worse at shot stopping either, so the trade off isn’t as steep. (+ The couple errors u mentioned)
Again, I just want to clarify, this doesn’t mean donnarumma isn’t world class as an individual footballer or hasn’t made great saves. It’s just that with Trafford the team plays better.
Edit: typo
Just because I can’t stop talking about how great the tacos were last night, doesn’t mean I love pizza any less.
Trafford has played our two most recent games and they’re the games Trafford was always going to play. He’s a first-tier level keeper while every other team’s second keepers are clearly second tier.
Let people celebrate Trafford. No shade to Donna.
Oooff, here comes the most generic take about Donnarumma. “He’s a treble winner, he’s available”. Embarrassing that we’ve become whatever we criticised United for, flexing trophies won by players at other clubs.
See that’s the problem. The whole defence for Donnarumma is that he makes good saves. So is he a brick wall shot stopper like Cuntois? No. He is a good shot stopper, but definitely not extremely elite in that regard. Plus this is the most set-piece heavy league and in set-pieces he becomes wacky waving inflatable tube man. That’s a clear weakness. Trafford is not a bum shot stopper, he is also good. But he can grow a lot more than Donna
In the payoff, he can’t play out from the back. In 7/10 scenarios he is forced to punt high. That makes us lose control of the game and facing another shot. Unless we are going to have big midfielders like Joelinton, it’s a definite risk. Meanwhile Trafford is much better than him in this. Look at both the Arsenal and Liverpool game. How many times Trafford was able to receive the ball under pressure and find the right pass. Look at Nobbins video abt how he sparked our comeback around the 30th minute in both of the matches. This level of technical ability allows control and us facing less shots. Hence the debate is simple “shot-stopping” vs “shot-prevention”. I would pick shot prevention any day.
Donna is 75/100 in shot stopping and 40/100 in technicality. Trafford is 60/100 in both. However Trafford can grow way more. He is obviously the better choice.
Trafford is superior on the ball with his feet and distribution.
Tbf people who want traff over big don don’t just use logic. Traff came up from our academy and wanted to play for us. Whereas, big don on the other hand is probably just using city a stepping stone. Talent wise a man with such experience as gigio is gonna be better a player who’s only been playing at the highest level for the past couple of years. Whatever happens, I would love to have traff at city than have him leave.
His errors are literally a big factor to why city are out of the champions league this season and have little to no chance of winning the league.
I’m not really bothered by Traff being the first choice by the fanbase but the fact Ederson is now considered a better keeper than Donnarumma is a bit shocking considering Ederson cost us several points last season and the season before that and all the UCL matches, Spurs twice, all 3 Lyon goals, Chelsea UCL final, Rodrygo first goal doesnt even recat to it just hits his chest and bounces right back to rodrygo for a tap in.
Donnarumma and Trafford were both clear upgrades to Ederson aside from his distribution.
Let’s be real and blunt. Trafford is a very good keeper. But you absolutely cannot tell me that his nationality (English) is a massive reason why so many people are backing him over Donnarumma. The exact same thing happened at Arsenal with Ramsdale versus Raya. Likewise, far too many people are acting like Donnarumma is a fossil and a few years from retirement. Do not let his hairline fool you. He just turned 27 and is less than 3.5 years older than Trafford. Donnarumma is the clear number 1 and on another level to Trafford. This would not be a “controversy” if Trafford were another nationality. English Bias/Hype is real and anyone pretending otherwise isn’t living in reality.
I agree with your post, but the fact this is even a conversation on this sub is wild to me. Traff is great, but Gigi is a generational goalkeeper. Anyone blaming him for the Madrid game is being ridiculous – we were never going to turn around that first leg, and it took a collective collapse for us to lose that badly there
Trafford should stay and fight for his place. Two cup games against average teams isn’t enough to dislodge Donnarumma 😂
Donnarumma is far better than Trafford; people are just upset they can’t see their fairy tale story unfold.
For me I think there can be a logical answer and a sentimental answer. Personally for me I just like the idea of having Trafford as first choice. Nothing feels better than seeing someone who really really plays for the shirt markedly improve throughout the season. E.g. Nunes, Khusanov, NOR etc.
The sole reason this guy has too make so many saves is because we are not comfortable in possession with him in between the posts
And he has glaring weaknesses for set pieces, loses his cool all the time and is very unstable
I aint denying that he aint a fab shotstopper but this aint gonna win us any cups is it?
Ederson on the other hand was never at donnas level in terms of shot stoppingbut hes been our most successful and 1 of the best in the business winning everythingthat could be won. At the end of the day this is all that matters.
Trafford fits our system, is a good 3 years younger and honestly i dont mind if we win 4-1 or 4-0 as long as the keeper contributes to the build up which is essential for man ciry
Donnarumma watchin the world cup again 🤷♂️
Not only has he played well for us, but he also played like a superhuman beast with Italy 🇮🇹 in their loss against Bosnia 🇧🇦
Sell him to Juventus. We need the best keeper in the world
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I rather have this version of trafford in our team than this one season wonder guy who sold us out on big games you are saying that without him we couldn’t come this far but i bet u if we had trafford from the start the result would have been much better that guy conceded stupid goals against real madrid same as other matches but trafford made an statement within 2 games so like i said i would have rather have trafford than him in our team.
That’s cool and all but he wasn’t needed.
He was a panic buy when Trafford was more than good enough
While I agree that Trafford is a better fit for our team than Donna due to his ball playing skills, it’s not wrong to say that if he didn’t get Donna we wouldn’t have been this much better.
In the beginning of the season, when our midfield was being bypassed easily, Donna saved us numerous times, but now as the pressing and team play has improved, I think Trafford suits our system more.
The following is also untrue by the way:
1. Trafford is as good as Donna in shot stopping: Trafford is defo better at ball playing and he is a decent shot stopper. But he isn’t at Donna’s level in terms of shot stopping and people saying so are doing so due to recency bias. Donna is easily the best shot stopper itw after Cortouis. And saying things like Trafford is just a slight downgrade is an understatement, mind you Donna has been playing in top teams for 10 years now, and if he wasn’t too good in shot stopping, he wouldn’t have been starting in Milan at 16 years of age.
2. Trafford can still grow, Donna can’t: Donnarumma is still only 27 years old, why can’t he become even better, let’s say in shot stopping only or during corners, leave ball distribution.
At the end, look irrespective of who you like, and whether you consider the signing of Donna to be a big mistake made by the club, he isn’t leaving anytime soon. So please get behind him, and don’t start throwing your own player under the bus, one who loves the club btw and is one of the best in his position.
And PLZ PLZ don’t be that dude who wants Donna to fail because he wants Trafford to be #1. You can like one without hating the other.