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Manchester City have a new goalkeeper on their books and the change in style will be noticeable for Pep Guardiola's side.
Pep Guardiola has made some brilliant signings for Manchester City in the past nine years. Players have won everything there is to win, have lit up the Etihad with their breathtaking brilliance and will return one day to see themselves immortalised in stone.
Ederson is unlikely to get the statue treatment, but if he did, what pose would the sculpture choose? Unusually for a goalkeeper, the defining image of the 32-year-old Brazilian is with the ball at his feet rather than making a save.
Whether it was short or long, Ederson redefined the role of goalkeepers in the Premier League and, in a crowded field, is probably Guardiola's most important signing. His arrival from Benfica brought everything together in the way Guardiola had envisaged.
Even when Ederson was unavailable, City's style didn't really change. Stefan Ortega has been his No. 2 for the previous three years and is comfortable with the ball at his feet. When James Trafford returned to the Etihad in a £27million deal in July, it looked like little would change, given the 22-year-old is steeped in the DNA of Guardiola's City from his time at the academy.
But then came the shock decision to pursue Donnarumma, who was surprisingly made available by PSG after Luis Enrique signed Lucas Chevalier from Lille. There is a certain irony in Enrique's sidelining one of the best shot-stoppers in world football to sign a goalkeeper who is better with his feet, only for City to decide that Donnarumma's ability to keep the ball out of the net is actually worth the compromise.
It's going to be fascinating to see what difference this makes to City's approach play when Donnarumma takes the gloves off Trafford, which could well be for the Manchester derby at the Etihad a week on Sunday.
Trafford has started all three of City's Premier League games so far this season and has been happy to take risks with his distribution and show his quality with the ball at his feet. It led to a mistake and the concession of a soft goal at Tottenham, but also started a flowing team move for one of Erling Haaland's strikes at Wolves.
Donnarumma insists he can fit in to City's style and build from the back while pointing to the fact that Guardiola was so keen to sign him. However, the stats do show how different it could look with Donnarumma in City's goal compared to Ederson.
According to figures on FBref, Ederson contributed just over two defensive actions outside his penalty area per 90 minutes over the previous year, with his average distance for a defensive action coming in at 17.8 yards.
That speaks to a goalkeeper who comes out of his area regularly and does a lot of his work off his line, with much of it on the edge or outside his area. He had a high starting position and that helped City's high line.
On the other hand, Donnarumma averages 0.85 defensive actions outside his penalty area per 90 minutes, and the average distance of his defensive actions is 12.6 yards. That is a sizeable difference and shows that the Italian will have to adapt to a new style. It also shows why Enrique felt the move to a different style of goalkeeper was worth it for PSG.
The other contrast could actually come in their ability to pick out longer passes. Last season, Ederson completed 43.6% of his 165 long passes, which Fbref count as a pass over 40 yards in distance. Donnarumma completed 34.7% of 101 long passes. For all of Ederson's risk-taking around his box, it was often his accuracy with longer balls that made the difference.
His accurate left boot, which could also launch the ball incredible distances downfield, could stretch the pitch for City and create goalscoring opportunities, as his record of seven Premier League assists shows. No other goalkeeper has more than three assists in the top flight.
It will be interesting to hear Guardiola talk about Donnarumma before the derby and explain what he feels he can bring to the team. Maybe the trade-off is worth it for a goalkeeper who is likely to concede fewer goals.
Either way, it is going to be interesting to watch a City team with a very different goalkeeper between the posts than Ederson. And Donnarumma is likely to spend a lot more time between those posts than Ederson ever did.
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