Zack Steffen is likely to start the 2020 English Premier League season as Manchester City’s No. 2 goalkeeper.
Pep Guardiola’s side begin its domestic season in September after given an extended break by the English FA for its lengthy European run this summer. With Claudio Bravo now gone from the Citizens, Steffen is likely to back up Brazilian National Team goalkeeper Ederson.
Manchester City will not only begin its Premier League season in September, but will also take part in the UEFA Champions League group stage and Carabao Cup later this Fall. Steffen could make his debut for the Citizens in the league cup, a competition which Guardiola rotated his goalkeepers for in the opening rounds.
The U.S. Men’s National Team No. 1 goalkeeper rejoins his parent club from German side Fortuna Dusseldorf. Steffen spent the season on loan with Dusseldorf, making 18 combined appearances in the first-half of the season, posting two clean sheets.
A patellar tendon issue and MCL injury respectively forced Steffen to watch the second-half of Dusseldorf’s season from the sidelines, despite working his way back to training near the end of play. The club eventually suffered relegation to the 2. Bundesliga after finishing second-from-bottom in the 18-team table.
Not only will Steffen remain with the Citizens this season, but the club retained veteran goalkeeper Scott Carson on loan from Derby County. Carson is likely to be the third choice keeper behind Ederson and Steffen.
Steffen has earned 17 caps for the USMNT, becoming a regular starter under former head coach Gregg Berhalter when fit. He will look to return to international action this October when the USMNT face its first matches since January.
Eh… I trust MC has seen much more of Steffen inaction than me the last few years, has better knowledge of his knees and favor their judgement assessing a goalkeeper more than my own.
So it’s really a disagreement from two of the worlds great soccer minds. Pep Guardiola wants Steffen to be his back up keeper, typically using his back up for League Cup, FA Cup, and CL group stage. Imperative Voice doesn’t rate him based of his GA avg. I’d expect Taylor Twellman to have them both on Banter next week to settle it.
setting aside the january friendlies, for the NT last year he won 4 in a row — the easier GC games up through Jamaica — and lost 5 games, the mexico final and friendly, the canada away game, and both the pre GC friendlies where we got our tail kicked. in the 5 losses he shipped 10 goals. most of the games went to the form book and the ones that didn’t like the pre GC friendlies and Canada, made us look worse, not better. i go back looking for the games where i feel like we played over our head, and got results we weren’t supposed to get, and they were sarachan games against france and mexico — 2 years ago like i said. but not since and not with this coach who turns him into a passing sweeper keeper he’s not.
I mean, that was obvious. He wasn’t going to leapfrog anyone at Man City.
Steffen is the best we have. He is at a CL team and behind the Brazi8lian national team keeper He’ll probably get to play in various cup games. A lot of comment here about little of importance. The only issue for me is if he is better off playing frequently for a bad team, or occasionally for an excellent team. He has enough experience I don’t think he needs to play for a bad team again and he’s young enough that he can bide his time at City. As I pointed out before, the Colombian national team keeper played backup for many years at Arsenal and he was a good national team keeper and probably made a good salary at Arsenal. If Steffen doesn’t get a lot of minutes after a couple of years, maybe he can get a regular job at a mid-table team. Keepers usually have long careers.
my response would be that ok, steffen gets to keep his job carrying a clipboard but somehow we can’t bring in horvath, wood, green, and the others who have produced in caps but have rough club situations? are we acting like Big Club makes it different when you aren’t actually playing?? and while i think on his game he is the superior choice, he hasn’t been on his game in a couple years since he started having knee issues. to me it’s laden in this sort of fanboy stuff, where the NT starter gets incumbency rights no matter how he looks, and we favor big club signees no matter how much they play, and selection starts being about rep instead of how you’re actually looking. to me the thing i learned over and over in club and college was rep? whoop de do. let me see him actually play.
Based on his Crew stats, this might be a debate. Based on Fortuna, his GAA ballooned up over 2, not even really a contest with Ederson <1. I want to find an excuse for the American and then I run the numbers and it's obvious.
He has not looked like the same keeper with the Nats either, and the US has historically lived off of keepers playing out of their minds, not merely OK performances or the keeper gives away the ball that comes back and scores on him. I feel like this lack of consistency and confidence coincides with the move. He should be the second keeper at City, on the numbers, so I don't get this whole thing. FWIW the history of US keepers in EPL runs something like they sign at ManU and first kerfuffle become surplus, at which point they go to Everton and become EPL keeper of the year, which implies them being better than whoever ManU now has. So why not sign at Everton, so to speak, to start with. Pulisic is a rare bird in the big clubs treating an American like he's as good as he is.
Ever watch a Fortuna Dusseldorf game? The phrase “leaky defense” does not even begin to describe it. While I am not a huge Steffen fan, nor a detractor, he stood on his head many times for them. I may be wrong, but I want to say their results took a huge hit when he went down with injury. But realistically they were always going to be in the relegation fight. I think Steffen has a chance to be pretty good.
My point is not to argue about City vs Fortuna, it’s does this process really seem like it’s helping him. To me that includes “signed at City thinking he’d start and then went to a lousy B.1 team and got shelled.” I grant your point except in my experience at an often poor Houston team, performance behind shaky defenses can vary. One year we shipped like 60 goals but when you looked close one keeper was half a goal per game better than the other. So all things there are not equal. And my real point here is his club stats don’t impress and he looked like a mess for the US last year. You’re like, but Fortuna, but to me this is the package deal he bought. City without a permit, loaned out someplace lesser, in this case a lot lesser. Maybe eventually City backup. These kind of moves are supposed to help you flourish. I don’t see how this helps him. I see how you can come in with the Clorox and try and wipe it away. But I don’t see where this has made him a better keeper and accrued to the Nats’ benefit. I want Steffen back from about 2 years ago…..that looked like the heir to Keller and Friedel and Howard.
Fortuna games were infuriating to watch. They were a decent team at the end of the 2018-9 season, but last year it was as if they were trying to give the ball away. Steffen has some shaky moments his first few games, but he was clearly at the wrong end of the shooting gallery. He’s a step up from Timmy (during the last cycle) and Guzan.
Well ZS can play out of his mind iuf that is what the US needs. No stats to back that up obviously, but it has happened in very meaningful games and situations.
Can’t imagine Tony Meola was great statistically, but man it was great many times.
Not trying to argue for or against ZS, I think he is US number one, and I don’t see that changing, love it or hate it.