9 hours ago
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Gianluigi Donnarumma has made a big impression in his first couple of months at Manchester City and his defence love playing in front of him.
Josko Gvardiol believes Manchester City are a stronger defensive unit with Gianluigi Donnarumma in goal and said the Italian had improved communication at the back since he took the gloves in September.
Donnarumma has made an instant impact at the Etihad since his £26million move from Paris Saint-Germain, quickly emerging as a fan favourite and winning the respect of his teammates as well.
The 26-year-old replaced Ederson as City's No.1 this summer and brings a very different approach to goalkeeping, but Gvardiol is feeling secure with the former AC Milan man behind him.
He is even enjoying Donnarumma's argumentative streak, with the recent Yashin Trophy winner often complaining to referees during games, and getting his name taken as a result.
"It's much easier, yeah! It's much easier," Gvardiol said when asked what it was like to play in front of the giant goalkeeper.
"Of course, I mean, Man City as a club, always in the past, they had really good goalkeepers. Gigio is one of them as well.
"He adapted really quickly and I think that's a really important thing because I know when I joined Man City, how long it took me to adapt to the league to all the competitions.
"It's not just about him, it's about everyone in the team, and I think we can do even better. The good thing I see is that we fight for each other, we work for each other, we communicate even more than before and also it's, it's much easier when you have a goalkeeper like Gigio.
"He's really good on the ball and especially with his height, he's not afraid to come out of the line. He's important for us."
Donnarumma has been booked three times in 11 games since joining City. He had his name taken on Sunday as he complained about Bournemouth's goal at the Etihad, having felt he was obstructed during his attempts to clear a corner.
That ability to get a yellow card as a goalkeeper has been noted by his teammates, but Gvardiol is happy to see it and believes Donnarumma's forceful nature in goal is helping the defenders demand more from those in front of them as well. The results are seen in City's defensive record, with Monaco the only team to beat Donnarumma more than once in his 11 starts for the club.
"You can see every time, he argues with the referees and he gets booked almost every game," said Gvardiol. "But that's what we need and, because for me as a defender, when you see that someone from the goal is pushing you, supporting you for 90 minutes, then I can push the ones in front of me.
"Of course, we get along good and he's a nice guy. He's still young as well. So yeah, I think we're gonna, we're gonna spend many more years together."
Gvardiol is more involved with Donnarumma from his position as a centre-back this season and he is relishing the chance to be at the heart of defence, having vacated his left-back role towards the end of last term.
Rayan Ait-Nouri was signed from Wolves for £31million to fill that position, but it's academy graduate Nico O'Reilly who is making it his own right now and Gvardiol is full of praise for the 20-year-old's performances.
"I'm not a talker, first of all, but I think together we're doing good," he said of his partnership with O'Reilly. "We've been doing good since I came back. He's still young; we all know how good he is.
"He's really important because, playing in the pocket, that's what we need, that's what we look for and it's difficult to talk that much about him but I'm happy he's doing good."
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