The Goalkeeper

“In my teams, the goalkeeper is the first attacker and the striker is the first defender.” - Johan Cruyff

We’ve seen the goalkeeper role change through time just like any other position. The expectation of what a goalkeeper can bring to a team has raised. Let’s explore this.

A crucial prerequisite for a goalie is shot stopping. This is the obvious one. They must be able to block easy, moderate, and challenging shots from the opposing team. This means the keeper must have excellent reflexes. This is what makes a keeper. You can look today at the likes of Ajax’s Andre Onana for an incredible ability to get to the ball when it seems near impossible odds.  

To help develop reflexes, look no further than a partner, a wall, and some tennis balls. The partner can throw the tennis ball off the wall and the keeper has to catch the ball. At first, have the keeper stay further away from the wall, 10 feet or so. Throw a ball every five seconds, allowing the keeper to set back up after each throw. Variably, decrease the distance away from the wall and the time between throws, ex. 6 feet away from the wall and an interval of three seconds. To make it more difficult, have the thrower stand behind the keeper and to the side at a place where the keeper cannot see them throwing the ball. This requires an even faster response time because the keeper cannot calculate the angle of the throw or when it’s coming. 

A goalkeeper must be able to recognize and eliminate angles for the opposing team. Have you ever seen your favorite player get a breakaway and shoot it right into the goalie? Did the keeper come off his line and “get big”? A professional goalkeeper must cover a goal area 8 feet tall by 24 feet wide. That’s a big area. But pros know how to cover it well. It’s what they’re paid to do. Many people who’ve never played the game don’t realize how much math is involved in soccer, especially geometry. A keeper has to understand geometry. And I’m not talking philosophically. He must understand it experientially through continuous practice between the sticks. If the two posts represent the base of the triangle and the ball is the opposite vertex, how can I as a goalkeeper position myself so I can reach and make a save if the shot is on goal? The vertex is constantly changing (the ball) so the keeper must also constantly change. This position requires a high ability to focus constantly in the style we play. 

If an opposing player beats the defense and is one on one with the keeper, the keeper must come off his line fast to eliminate the massive space of the goal. If he doesn’t, it’s very easy for the opposing player to slot the ball into space in the back of the net. If he does, he eliminates more space and becomes a bigger obstacle to deal with for the opposing player. This is why strikers and wingers often try to dribble the goalie because of the lack of space to shoot into. The closer the goalie gets to the player, the “bigger” he becomes. 

The ability to communicate clearly and precisely is a must for a keeper. They see the entire field as they are the very last defender. No one marks them, excluding corner kicks where some may stand in front of them. Because of this, they must be a general on the field. Oliver Kahn was incredible at this. Listed as one of the best keepers in history, “Der Titan” received the only Golden Ball given to a keeper in the World Cup. He won numerous trophies with Bayern Munich and was a legendary captain for both his club and national sides. He constantly looked upset, screaming demands to his teammates based on what he saw in the game. He had incredible vision, another must for any keeper. 

With vision, comes the ability to distribute the ball, to decide where, when, and how hard the ball needs to be thrown or kicked. There are several keepers playing who are great examples of this: Ederson at Man City, Alisson at Liverpool, and Neuer at Bayern Munich. My personal favorite at this skill is Andre Ter Stegen of Barcelona. He told his former coach, Ernesto Valverde (and also the media) that he thinks he would play well as a midfielder. And I don’t doubt it. Barcelona builds out of the back. They have both center backs from the French winning World Cup side (Umtiti and Lenglet) and Spain’s center back (Pique). Yet, they choose to have Umtiti pass the ball to Ter Stegen on goal kicks so he can distribute the ball out of the back. That’s how good he is with his feet.

Nowadays, a keeper must be good with his feet, if not great. We are seeing more and more teams building out of the back rather than booting it away from their goal. These are the best teams in the world: Liverpool, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Napoli, Ajax, Man City, and the list goes on. Building out from the back ensures your team can combine passes together to get past the opponent’s lines of defense. For more on this, read Between the Lines. If a team knows how to get past these lines of defense, there is a much higher percentage of maintaining the ball into the final third rather than kicking the ball over the top of everyone and having a forward run and chase it, hoping to win possession.

If we add a goalkeeper as a player rather than just a shot stopper, we are now 11v10. The opposing goalie is not listed because he will not try to defend us with his feet. Here, we can take advantage of numbers up throughout the entire field. The below diagram is a remake from Kieran Smith, a positional play coach. It emphasizes what we are looking for numbers wise to take advantage of the other team. It looks like a bunch of rondos throughout the entire field, hence why we practice them so much. We will get to the point where we have our players identifying these in the game. The diagram is based on us playing a 4-3-3 formation and the opposing team playing a 4-4-2 or a 4-3-3:

Without using our goalie, it is tough to buildup from the back. We will always play a style where the goalie is involved as much on the field as any other player. If we look at the modern game, Manuel Neuer from Germany is a great example of this. Bayern Munich had the highest defensive line in soccer under Pep Guardiola through the 2014-2016 seasons, meaning they pushed up their defenders near the mid-line regularly and held their position. The reason they could achieve this is because they had a sweeper keeper in Neuer, a keeper who pushes up the field to clear away any balls being played over the top by the opposing team. There will be mistakes and lessons from those mistakes, but in the end, this adds a clear advantage for any team who is willing to use a goalie as an outfield player. 

There are many essentials to what a goalkeeper is and can be. The overarching qualities above are what I believe make a goalkeeper great. 

Ball Mastery - Skills to develop at home - 15 minutes every day

Toe Touches - 5 minutes

Wall Ball - 5 minutes

Wall Ball Part 2 - 5 minutes

See you tonight.