Manchester City hero Nicky Weaver insists Claudio Bravo can be the club's long-term No1.

Bravo is expected to retain his place for Thursday's clash with Manchester United.

"He is not a poor goalkeeper, he's just had a poor start to life in Manchester," said Weaver, now an academy goalkeeping coach at Sheffield Wednesday, to the Manchester Evening News.

“I don't want to say it was an unpopular signing, but because of how popular Joe Hart was he was up against it right away. Joe was a hero for the fans, so replacing that will always be difficult.

“He got off to a bad start on his debut in the derby when he made a little error for the goal."

He added: “He is not chucking them in – they are not going through his legs or he's dropping them in, that sort of thing, but a little bit of pace on the ball seems to have caused him some problems."