Enzo Maresca has revealed he has spoken privately with Gianluigi Donnarumma about his recent string of errors, but insists the Manchester City goalkeeper’s confidence remains unshaken as his inconsistent form continues to draw scrutiny.
Donnarumma was culpable for RB Leipzig’s opening goal in City’s Champions League fixture in midweek, and was shaky at other moments during the match as the patchy spell that has followed him through the autumn persisted.
The Italian did produce a fine save to deny Christoph Baumgartner, a reminder of the world-class shot-stopping that persuaded City to sign him from Paris St-Germain in the summer. However, it is the mistakes either side of such moments that have increasingly dominated the conversation around him.
It is a theme that has now become familiar. Since City’s chastening defeat at Aston Villa, Maresca has repeatedly been asked to address his goalkeeper’s dip in form, and has consistently refused to single him out, pointing instead to a broader pattern of individual errors across his back line during a punishing run of fixtures.
Maresca: ‘I don’t need to be deep with some players’
Speaking ahead of the Nottingham Forest match, Maresca explained that he has addressed the mistakes directly with Donnarumma, but suggested that, given the goalkeeper’s own awareness of his errors, lengthy conversations are often unnecessary.
“It’s much more easy for the language for me with Gigio. There are players that when they make some mistake you need conversation with them, and there are players that when they make some mistake you just need eye contact to understand that he recognises, he knows,” Maresca said, as quoted by the Manchester Evening News.
“With Gigio it’s quite easy because every time he has made some mistake or something that was not correct, he recognises immediately.
“I spoke with Gigio, but again sometimes you don’t need to be so deep with some players because you know that they know that they have made a mistake and they recognise that and just try to avoid that and move on.”
The City head coach has previously described his goalkeeper as a “strong guy” who does not need to be told when something has gone wrong. He stressed that mistakes are an almost inevitable by-product of a relentless fixture list that has seen several of his players carrying heavy minutes across multiple competitions.
A difficult adjustment in a demanding system
Donnarumma’s switch to the Etihad Stadium in 2025 was seen as a statement signing, bringing one of Europe’s most decorated goalkeepers into a Manchester City rebuilding project.
But adapting to Pep Guardiola’s old club, and to a defensive structure that still demands huge amounts of ball-playing responsibility from its goalkeeper, has not been entirely smooth.
Maresca has also acknowledged that some of the pressure placed on Donnarumma has come from his own team’s decision-making rather than purely individual error.
He once told reporters that team-mates have at times opted to pass back to their goalkeeper when better options were available further forward.
That, he suggested, has occasionally left Donnarumma exposed in situations not entirely of his own making.
Even so, the pattern of costly mistakes means Donnarumma’s early months in Manchester have been a mixture of spectacular saves and unsettling lapses. Maresca, for now, shows no sign of wavering in his support, framing the errors as part of a process rather than a crisis.
