As high pressing has become a greater part of football, Guardiola evolved the idea of countering an opponent's pressing by ensuring his goalkeeper and defenders are comfortable on the ball and capable of retaining possession to counteract. At Manchester City, he evolved this idea one step further by utilising the fact players cannot be offside from a goal kick and ensured a goalkeeper with the necessary kicking force to kick the length of the pitch in signing Ederson. If opponents pressed City high in their back third from a goal kick, it was not uncommon that Manchester City strikers would run deep into the opponent's back third. By doing this it forced opponents back to mark the strikers who could not be offside, thus creating large space in the middle of the pitch for the goalkeeper to chip the ball over the opposition's aggressive high press, at the same time this would often result in City creating a scoring opportunity.