Goalkeeping: If you’re good enough then you’re big enough

There is a lot of heated debate and fallacy regarding the height of a goalkeeper, and it is the eternal million dollar topic with the goalkeeping community. Height was, is and always will be at the forefront of the scouting checklist when professional clubs are looking for a prospective new custodian.

The truth is simple: if you are good enough then you are almost certainly tall enough.

The majority of arguments for shorter goalkeepers come from shorter goalkeepers themselves. It is easy to accept that the reason you never turned professional is that you simply weren’t tall enough – there’s no shame in that, it’s simply a physical reason that you can quickly justify in your head, and also the reason that you can explain to your grandchildren in years to come “I could have played for Manchester United when I was younger, but I was just too short”

Even though I’m 6’ tall I wholly acknowledge the reason that I did not achieve my dream of playing professional level football was that I was not good enough!!

I could easily write down scores of goalkeeping names that would be considered “shorties” but all that would achieve is to fuel the fire of my argument that height is not everything.

In my book ‘Goalkeeping: Looking After Number One’ I penned a chapter named “How tall is he? Can he kick?” This was related to the first two questions that any goalkeeper scout gets asked when he recommends a goalkeeper to a club. This naturally supports my viewpoint that height is not the be all and end all of playing professional level football.

It is merely a factor in the overall picture.

If there were two 16 year olds vying for a scholarship, both of equal standard, ability and potential but one was 6’2” and the other 5’9” – which one would (rightly) get the nod?

We live in an ‘excuse culture’ whereby things are never that individuals fault – my opinion is that players must look at themselves first and foremost to truly discover the reason why they are playing where they are. If you haven’t been blessed with great stature then what can you add to your game to compensate for that? How hard did you work to overcome this failure?

Ask Peter Shilton for instance, what he did when he readily acknowledged that he may not grow as tall as he’d dreamed?

Personally I have not met one single goalkeeper coach that would support a decision to ditch a hugely talented goalkeeper, just because of his height. We can see the ability and potential in our students, and would not, could not and never would (I hope) use the height line as a genuine reason to wreck the dreams of a young goalkeeper.

Yes, there is a whole host of initial luck used up at getting into a professional club in the first instance, so don’t sit back and relax – you need to make it incredibly hard for that club to drop you! If you’re good enough then you are tall enough!!

Goalkeeping: Working with your Centre Backs

These two players are perhaps the most important members of your team for you, the goalkeeper. A dominant pair of centre backs can give the team cohesion and confidence, especially when coupled with a very capable goalkeeper.

What is more confidence inspiring for a goalkeeper, than witnessing his two centre backs taking charge of every attack? It is so encouraging to witness them talking, encouraging and organising as well as dispelling any threat with a well timed intervention.

I have always said that the best goalkeepers are those who have to do nothing during a game. If you liken this to an entrepreneurial businessman whom delegates tasks in order to become a success, a high quality goalkeeper will adopt the same “delegation” techniques to organise his defence.

Goalkeepers should possess a good solid knowledge of his team’s tactics and must be able to “coach” from the back, and by using this knowledge he will be able to successfully organise his central defenders into a formidable unit. They too, must have knowledge and experience of the goalkeeper they are protecting. It is vitally important that at every “game” opportunity in training, this triangle of players work together regularly.

As a goalkeeper, you need to study your defenders style of play, observe which way they prefer to send the attacker whom is running at them, know whether they can win an aerial challenge or prefer to drop off the flighted ball? From this base knowledge, you can then begin to form a strategy to encourage the best from them.

You often get told as a goalkeeper to “Talk more”, but no-one ever tells you what to say, so just remember to be constructive in your communication. Don’t shout for the sake of shouting but have a purpose with your calls – what do you want that player to achieve? If you work with a goalkeeper coach then he should have the knowledge to help you with this, as it is his job to study the patterns of play that build up in front of you; but I know that many goalkeepers aren’t that fortunate to work with a coach so instead it is up to you to take the lead.

Outfield players aren’t the brightest(!) as many prefer to be told what to do as opposed to deciding for themselves. If you can make their mind up for them, then it allows you to then organise the subsequential cover accordingly. Your centre backs will always appreciate a confident, talkative goalkeeper behind them so it is up to you to provide them with exactly that.

Keep your commands short and inspirational, spot the dangers and play within your teams tactics to thwart the danger before you have to make any save.

Goalkeeping: Create your unique selling point

Those of you that are familiar with business concepts, or even simply Dragons Den addicts, then you will be well aware of the term – USP.

In order for someone to buy your product, it ideally requires a Unique Selling Point which sets you apart from the crowd. For many products this is a difficult task in a crowded market place, but those that manage to discover their USP, flourish!

How does this apply to goalkeeping? Simple, find a skill that sets you apart from your competition and chances are, people will start talking about you.

We spend hours and hours fine tuning our all round skills, striving to become the perfect goalkeeper but we also neglect to focus on the one thing that we desperately need – our reputation. What do people know you for?

For me, it was dealing with one on ones or any sort of pressure in the box. I excelled at standing up, making myself big and low and pouncing at the right moment. Delaying the play really was my forte but similarly I was fearless when attacking the ball.

If the attacker had just turned my centre back then one of my strengths was predicting the play and being on top of him as he turned. Quite often it would mean a simple block with my hands behind the ball or even the slightest of finger flicks to take the ball out of his stride, but all of this meant that I generated a reputation for these situations.

It got so that when training, the players saw it as a scalp if they ever managed to beat me during the shooting in the box drills. It is the old school drill (that many grass roots junior coaches deliver religiously still) where the players pass to the coach on the edge of the box, he lays it off and the player runs on to shoot – or dribble around the goalkeeper.

I excelled at reading the lay off, could I make the ground up or should I stay put? Can I make it to the ball first? The players enjoyed the challenge and were always relieved when the other goalkeepers went in (though they had other strengths so it was swings and roundabouts for the strikers at times!).

It would be suicidal to neglect the areas that you are weak on, and these must be worked on, but sometimes because we concentrate on what we are not so good at – we end up neglecting the development of what we actually have the skills in.

It is fun to train at what you are brilliant at, I used to love when we worked on close range striking so develop your best skill, become as near perfect as you can at it and you will soon create yourself a reputation that will follow you through your career. (And please don’t class shot stopping as your USP, I haven’t yet met a goalkeeper without this skill!)

Goalkeeping: Scouting the opposition

If you are fortunate enough to play at a good level, then you will also no doubt have ample opportunities to take in a few of your opponents matches. There are a lot of football leagues now that arrange mid week games, especially as the unpredictable weather makes the fixture secretary pull his hair out towards the end of the season!

I think that any footballer that is serious about his game should watch other matches of his level. He can learn so much about his game by watching others that it is criminal to let these opportunities pass him by. Why wouldn’t you want to see how other goalkeepers behave to discover whether there is anything that you can incorporate into your game|? What a golden learning opportunity in just 90 minutes…

If I was Manager at that level, then I feel that for a player to earn their wages they should also act as Scout for the Club. They could be despatched to watch a potential transfer target, watch a forthcoming opposition or even just to learn his position – all are great ideas to strengthen his Club, and all are ways to develop the player.

As a Goalkeeper Coach, my duty often included travelling to watch the opposition and I was always left with a very vague description as to what the Manager wanted me to discover. I felt as though the opposition were being scouted purely because the Manager thought it was the done thing….

So I developed my own criteria, I noted things that would help my Goalkeeper and therefore the Team. I drew on my memories of playing and clarified what aspects of knowledge I thought would help me, and here are just a few that I came up with:

How did they deliver the Kick Off? (Did they look to play a particular wing for instance?). Obviously in some games, I may have only seen one kick off per team.

Who was the Captain? How does he react under pressure? What happens when things go wrong?

Which players take the corners? Any indicative signals? Where are they delivered into? Inswing or outswing delivery?

Which players take the Free Kicks in final third? Right Footed/Left Footed? Player movement?

What is the movement of their forwards? How is the supply to them? Do the midfield make runs, and where?

I would have a notebook full of scribbled passages of play, and memory jogging abbreviations, all of which I would write up in time to run through with my goalkeepers before the game. I would also discuss with the Team Manager, just to make him aware for his tactical preparations. There is infinite information you can gleam by taking an analytical approach, so rather than a simple “What formation do they play” or “Who are the danger men?” it is much more beneficial to be able to say “They will do this…” and “Number 7 does that...” Be objective with your scouting, and think what details you would want to know if you were playing.

Goalkeeping: Becoming the coach your players deserve

I have taken the lead from a particularly funny Twitterer @LegendaryCoach who tweets things that we all feel. I have shied away from fully expressing my opinions on this subject for fear of upsetting some fellow coaches….but I have swiftly reached the conclusion that there really is little or no excuse for unprofessionalism in your sessions.

There are several things that annoy me when watching other coaches, and these are only my opinion, as I’m fairly certain that I used to do things that annoyed other coaches also. They only annoy me because 99.9% of the time, there are other options available to the Coach, so therefore no excuse…..

Firstly it is an absolute given that you must have prepared the session you are about to deliver. There is nothing worse for a player than being involved with a coach who is clearly “winging it”, you can feel the stuttering of the session and your mind set wanders. All that happens is that, as a player, you are desperate for a game just so that you can enjoy yourself a little.

It can take an hour or so to prepare a session, but this is a sacrifice that we must be prepared to make in order to achieve both our personal, and also our player’s objectives. I got myself into the habit of preparing a week worth of sessions in one go on a Sunday afternoon whilst watching the Italian Football on TV. Throughout the prior week you should be noting down topics to work on, game analysis and goalkeeper’s feedback. This will all give you topics to focus on in the coming week and make planning your sessions that much easier.

Now that you have planned your sessions, secondly is to ensure that your equipment is prepared. YOUR FOOTBALLS MUST MATCH! This is merely my opinion, but a real pet hate of mine is non-matching footballs as it reeks of unprofessionalism and pub football. Whatever level of football, there is no excuse to ignore the simple little details and please scrap the Mitre Calcio’s or SportsDirect bargain balls for your senior players!

Make sure that you have a Ball carry Bag too – ASDA carrier bags are not acceptable! And it is also essential that your footballs are both clean and also pumped up before the session commences. Little things….

I am an advocate of solely using white cones for my sessions. I don’t know why other than I just prefer the simplicity of a single colour; it really irritates me to see coaches scatter a plethora of different coloured cones around to mark out one area – inexcusable and confusing for the players.

Thirdly, your kit should match. Even if your club do not have training kits, or cannot afford Coaching Uniforms then buy yourself a matching brand outfit – you can dictate this, and it will be noticed. Wearing various different brands simply screams “Amateur” to onlookers so pay attention to the message that you send out in the way you dress. I am also harsh in that I judge players and coaches by their boots – Copas and Kings immediately create an impression that they know their stuff, whereas brightly coloured ‘flare’ boots give me an initial impression of “Pretender”. In the same way that a wise man does not need to shout his knowledge, a good coach does not need to draw attention to himself.

And whilst I’m on clothing NEVER, EVER, EVER wear another team’s kit to training or matches. Even if it’s a shirt of the Premiership Club you support (especially if!), it is an insult to the Club and the Players you are working with. Amateur…..

In essence, coach and act as how you would expect your coach to behave and dress. Always start the session at the time you stated, dress appropriately and professionally (no grey or black ankle socks please!) and use good quality equipment. Don’t overlook the importance of planning, and also be prepared to change the drills as you go as sometimes they work and other times the simply don’t!

Goalkeeping: Captain Marvel?

Can a goalkeeper be a captain? Can a goalkeeper make a good captain? If you are one of the special people whom don the goalkeeper gloves every weekend then you will already know the answer to this…..

YES!!!

If you are like I was as a player, then you knew that you were a leader. You knew that you could get your team to follow you into whatever battle was ensuing for the next ninety minutes; that was the way that I was as a player, I was a winner!

And because of this it may skew my opinions a little, but I had the privilege of being given the arm band at the majority of my clubs. I was always honoured when the manager would pull me aside after training, or call me in the middle of the day to say “I want you to be my Captain”. I loved those moments, as it showed a huge trust in me, not my ability, but in my personality.

I’ve always believed that a Captain should be an inspiration, not necessarily in what he says, but almost certainly in what he does. Actions will always inspire me, as words can be cheap if they cannot be backed up. When things are getting tough, I expect my Captain to lead, to inspire and to change his teams attitude.

A good Captain is worth a host of valuable points each season, a team without this leader has a ‘soft belly’ or an ‘Achilles heel’ if you will. And if that inspiration has to come from the last line of defence, then so be it….

We play football to win, full stop. I know full well that my ambition come quarter to five on a Saturday afternoon was to have those three points safely in the bag. If we’d played well then brilliant, however the three points were always the priority and I think that my Managers recognised that in me.

Whether the goalkeeper is the elder statesman of the squad (Shilton for England or Zoff for Italy) or relatively younger like Iker Casillas of Spain, is all irrelevant as long as they possess the inner spirit to be a winner.

So, can you lead from the back? Of course you can, your body language can be seen from the other penalty area and your voice can be heard from the neighbouring city! When you look across to your bench when you’ve just conceded and you see your Manager with his head in his hands, what inspiration have you just drawn? That we’re beaten, the manager has just given up.

However, you look over and see your manager being proactive, urging you to get the ball out of the net and back up field before issuing instructions to the winger standing nearest to him; you draw inspiration from this. His urgency and body language is all positive – he does not want to be beaten. That is a leader. A man with a Plan A, B and C who will not lay down for anyone. He cannot leave his technical area so therefore cannot directly influence play, but you can…

There are many ways to influence your team mates, maybe it’s a highly charged rollicking delivered directly in the face of your defender, maybe it’s the arm around the shoulder and an encouraging word in their ear but for a goalkeeper captain, it will mostly be through body language; a point of the finger, a thumbs up or a wink. It is the delivery of this that is vitally important, you must know which one to use and when for a 40 yard print across the pitch is never an available option for us!

Never allow yourself to believe that your team is beaten, never allow your tem mates to believe that either for as long as there is air in their lungs, then anything is possible. One goal can change a game, and your whole behaviour can dictate the attitude of your team mates. With or without the Arm Band, you are the leader….and winning feels great!

Goalkeeping: Playing in the Rain

It is fair to say that I am somewhat strange in that I love to train in the rain, but I hate playing in it! This is because in training; I see it as a challenge, different ways to test my ability and to pit myself against the elements. I always liked to push my boundaries in training, attempt things that I may never dream of doing during a game; training was my time for development.

In games however, was a different kettle of fish. Any new challenge was frowned upon by me, I liked my 90 minutes to be uneventful and boring with anything I had to deal with being simpler than simple! I did not want to be pulling out worldies or diving across my goal several times – I wanted to do nothing in games as that would result in a fair chance that we would win the game! Nothing to do = pressure always up the opposing end.

It is a whole new ball game, when the rain is driving down and you have to squint just to try and repel it from your eyes. Every movement feels lethargic as the cold material of your goalkeeper jersey clings uncomfortably to your body, your shorts soak up the water due to the sponge padding and you are constantly making fists in order to drain the water from your latex palms.

Each one of those things has already taken your mind away from the game, and that can automatically result in danger. Playing on a slippery surface requires real focus, and attention to every little development that is happening in front of you. You must concentrate harder and longer as even a long punt forwards can result in your defender slipping over and leading to a goal scoring opportunity.

Firstly you must remember that you cannot take any chances; a shot that you would naturally try to catch, you may very well need to adjust your hand shape so that you can parry it instead. The slightly dragged shot that you would naturally field to safety may instead require you to make the save as the wet surface can alter the destination. The back pass that you would normally strike first time, might just need a touch to settle first….all of these issues fall within your decision making.

Remember that you will slide further when you hit the floor, so any parries must be into a safe zone.

Remember that the ball will happily zip along the surface, and will bounce for longer so you need to adjust your body shape as it travels, in order to master the ball.

Remember that your team mates may not be able to control and turn with your passes as usual; you must use the wet surface to your advantage and aim to hit their movement instead.

There are infinite changes to your natural routine when dealing with any aspect of goalkeeping in the wet, every ball is a whole new challenge and focus is imperative. Here are just a couple of tips that will help your rainy day play:

• Deal with all sorts of varied service in the warm up. Bounces, skidded, flat, through balls – all are of equal importance and you must “get your eye in” on these skills before kick off where possible.

• If possible, get yourself back out at half time and field some similar strikes to the warm up.

• Coating your eyebrows with Vaseline allows the rain to be ‘guttered’ around your eyes (this is also useful on hot days to repel the sweat from your forehead!)

• Don’t panic, every shot can be dealt with as long as your basics are precise. Get into line with absolutely everything during the game, do not break concentration and focus on your technical skill set.

Goalkeeping: Training with an enemy

In every way possible, the lads that you train with are your enemies; however are probably only ever so in a sporting sense of the word. You are all competing for a single position in the team, and there can only ever be one winner.

I was very fortunate during my playing career that away from the training ground, all my competitors were also my mates. I still desperately wanted to beat them though, and I had to be Number One, but we all saw it as healthy competition and socialised to the full as a small goalkeeping group!

As a Coach in the modern game, I have seen petty squabbles amongst my goalkeepers and have become the mediator in the middle of fully grown men acting like teenagers!

It has even happened to me once; a lad that had recently joined us actually rang up the Manager asking if he could train with another goalkeeper coach! It emerged that he did not like my direct approach to what I can only politely describe as his “big time” attitude and wanted instead to work with someone less abrasive!

He left not long after (the manager also told him to grow a pair). It was areal shame as he had bags of ability, but sadly not attitude.

Back onto topic though, and training with someone whom you do not get on with is inherently difficult, especially if you do not have a strong coach. I put the emphasis onto the coach as he is solely in charge of the session.

The squabbles that I have been witness to have resulted in half hearted service, or service that “stitches up” the goalkeeper. One of the worst experiences I had was during a pre-match where Goalkeeper A had just been replaced by Goalkeeper B. Whether Goalkeeper B was involved in the squad or not, he always came and joined in the warm up without fail. His professionalism was unquestioned and, even though it was clear the pair never got on, Goalkeeper B would be fully committed to adopting the correct attitude.

Having been dropped, Goalkeeper A emerged from the tunnel with such a poor attitude coupled with half hearted service that it boiled over and he was politely asked by myself to either “adjust your attitude or please get dressed and go home”. His attitude improved sufficiently to ensure that Goalkeeper B was mentally and physically prepared for his game, whilst Goalkeeper A and I had a good discussion in the equipment room, away from potentially disrupting the changing room.

My advice to him was simply whether you like him or not, you need to learn from him. You need him to provide good service for you to improve from and to do this, he must respect you. It is attitude and actions that earn respect so whether you like him or not, be a professional.

I also remember once saying to one of my Managers “I don’t have to like you to play for you”…………he promptly dropped me into the Reserves!

Personal feelings cannot enter the football pitch, whether it be training or playing. Whilst you have the gloves on, that is the only thing that matters at that time. Accept one another, use your emotions to push yourself on, channel it to become a better player than him if you must, but do not allow this personal situation into your professional mind space.

Goalkeeping: Playing second fiddle

I think that we have all been there at some point in our careers, whether it be for just the one game or an entire season or two – just ask Steve Harper! But the very nature of our isolated position means that one of the squad goalkeepers will be on the bench!

The desolation felt when the manager names the team, and you’re not in it, is second to no other feeling in football – put in simplistic terms it is downright horrible! Even when we are totally honest with our self appraisal and acknowledge that the other goalkeeper slightly has the edge over us, the bitter pill of rejection is still an incredibly hard one to swallow.

So how do we cope with it?

There is no magic wand in football that can help us to push on despite the rejection, no amount of consoling words can ever do justice to the annoyance felt; and often this is compounded by the Manager as sometimes they simply do not have the opportunity nor time to explain why you aren’t involved. If you are involved with full time football then this is inexcusable, however for the millions of part time and grass roots players, they must accept the Managers decision and simply keep their head down, be professional on the Match Day and ask the manager at a convenient time.

I remember well one personal example, and am now embarrassed at my reaction however that was my personality at the time. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and experience has taught me acceptance and knowledge of the position the manager was in.

We’d had a good pre-season, and both myself and the other goalkeeper had been sharing duties throughout, but I had been given the most game time and had been told directly from the Manager that I would be the starter. I had no reason to doubt this so when the first league game came round (bizarrely on a Tuesday night!) I prepared as I normally did….

…and then the Manager ran through the team when we were all assembled in the changing room. BOOM! I am now embarrassed to say that my head went, I felt betrayed and seriously let down by the man I trusted most. I simmered away as I slowly got changed, the slaps on the shoulders and cajoling words from my team mates were of no use, they merely fuelled the fire inside me.

I waited for the lads to all empty the changing room for their warm up and then alone with the Manager and Physio; I kicked off! Let’s simply say that there is a changing room in Norfolk that has imprints of size 10 Puma Kings in the showers!

I had to accept that I had been benched, and had to respect the Managers decision (which I did, just not the way I found out!). I resolved there and then to graft even harder in training than I had ever done before, as there was no way I wasn’t going to compete for my place. If I see things as a personal challenge then I will win, regardless of how long or how exhausting it is, I will keep going until I have conquered the challenge.

As a full time goalkeeper coach, I have worked very closely with lads that have to play second fiddle and my advice is always the same: rise to the challenge, keep your head down and train like you have never trained before. If there is an endurance run then make sure that you are at the front, if you are doing circuits then make sure that you are working the hardest and never give up. Make it impossible for the gaffer to overlook you, and when you do get the chance then make it impossible for him to drop you!

Maintain your professionalism, though there is no harm in showing your emotion (by kicking the shower walls!) but always hold your head high, do things properly and never roll over and accept the decision. See it as an inconvenience and not as an insult and be prepared to take your chance.

Goalkeeping: Playing against a quick forward

It is fair to say that playing against a forward who loves to run in on goal is a huge challenge.

The key thing as a goalkeeper is to anticipate the through ball, as you can watch the clever forwards working their way across your back four, just waiting for the opportunity to pounce.

Long balls aren’t necessarily a big problem as defenders should be able to adjust and re-group accordingly. As long as your starting position is positive then the threat of these is instantly minimised, however a good weighted through ball can cause all sorts of problems.




Danny Naisbitt shows the value of a Sweeper Keeper for Cambridge United



One of the first things you need your team to be aware of is the space in front of you and how you can minimise the opportunities the opposition may create. If you are playing against a fluid passing team, or even if the opposition has a creative midfielder, then you really need your midfield and forwards to create the first barrier when you are not in possession. You can call this from your position on the pitch quite easily – remember the immediate threat is the ball, so therefore you need to call for the first defender (player nearest the ball) to address their possession. From there, it is time to organise your subsequent defenders.

The striker will almost always try to play between your centre back and full back, and will look to get them turned at every opportunity so make sure that:

a)      You are in a strong starting position and also on your front foot and

b)      Your full back knows to take the shortest route to goal if he gets turned

If you can encourage the players in front of you to always be all over the oppositions first touch, and subsequently try to force the play backwards then you are starving their main threat and will expose them to playing long balls forwards. High, lofted balls forward pose a whole different threat than the clever threaded pass. In dealing with a quick forward it is all about what the team can do, as opposed to how you deal with him personally.

In the rare (hopefully) occasion that you do get involved in a one on one situation, remember that your primary aim is to delay the play, and to hold him up for as long as possible. This puts the pressure immediately onto him whereas if you rush in and sell yourself, it is incredibly easy to side step you on have a clear route to goal. Only go to ground when you are 100% certain of winning the ball.

Effective communication, positive starting point and awareness of space are all key to mastering this situation.