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Donnarumma is in deep trouble, because in his last PSG game in the league, he pulled off a really strange kung-fu kick to the opponent’s shoulder, totally knocking him over, and getting sent off, in only the 10th minute. But his problems didn’t stop there. 22-year-old substitute goalkeeper Arnau Tenas, who’s actually the third-choice goalie, and who no one had probably ever heard of, didn’t squander this golden opportunity and really impressed, not just by making 3 crucial saves to keep a clean sheet in his first ever official PSG game, but by also looking more composed on the ball than Donnarumma ever has. So, the fact that Luis Enrique’s third-choice goalkeeper does better than Donnarumma should be really concerning.
Now, Donnarumma is a fine fine goalkeeper, with great shot saving abilities. I mean the Italian’s performance against England in the Euro 2020 final, during which he saved two penalties in the shootout, earned him the player of the tournament award. But since football has dramatically changed where the buildup of the attack starts from the goalkeeper playing the ball out from the back, that’s where Donnarumma’s problem is. He’s far from the modern keeper when it comes to being composed and effective in his distribution.
Donnarumma’s recent mistakes remind me of PSG’s Champions League last-16 round vs Real Madrid. PSG had a slender 1-0 advantage in the first leg in Paris, and in the second leg, Kyliane Mbappé struck again in Madrid to put PSG in an aggregate 2-0 lead and with less than 30 minutes to play. But boy did Donnarumma totally mess up PSG’s commanding position. Now because Karim Benzema has been known to punish goalkeepers for their silly mistakes, like he did with Karius of Liverpool and Ulreich of Bayern Munich, Donnarumma was no exception. Instead of just making up his mind and just shooting or passing the ball, he just holds on to it, losses possession, and concedes an equalizer, which totally changed the dynamic of the game, resulting at the end in a devastating PSG loss, and a fight between Donnarumma and Neymar.
And almost two years after that mistake, the frequency and the variety of the errors just won’t stop. And neither will the Italian giants’ bad fortunes. Some players are greeted like heroes when visiting their previous clubs, but when Donnarumma played against AC Milan in the Champions League, the fans weren’t just very hostile and showered him with insults and boos throughout the game, but they also showered him with fake dollar bills, because he had turned down a lucrative contract extension to accept an even bigger deal at PSG.
Now it’s fair to say that with modern football, lots of goalkeepers are making frequent mistakes, because they’re not only required to make saves, but they’re needed in the attacking buildup. This is distracting them and dividing their attention and resulting in lots of blunders. And Man United goalie Andre Onana is the greatest example of this. But if Donnarumma doesn’t get his act together, and with options at PSG like youngster Arnau Tenas as well as Vicario of Tottenham for the Italian National team, he could very much lose his position as number 1 goalkeeper at both country and club level. So do you think that that is an option and that coaches Luis Enrique and Luciano Spalletti could pull such a move?